Ekf Diagnostics Share Discussion Threads

[mg1982] 03/9/2021 18:02

The thing is Tong, if you lie and hyperbolate, you keep coming across as the idiot of the village that's lost money and is desperately trying to gain it back.

It's best if you just keep quiet about when you'll enter and exit the trade.

It doesn't take a genius to work out when #EKF breaks out there'll be plenty of traders entering it.

[tongosti] 03/9/2021 15:21

Thanks for your concern darling.

I am aware you don't mind holding on to a lifeless stock for years so my approach is - by definition - a bit of a stretch for you.

[mg1982] 03/9/2021 15:19

Mr Tong don't do it, you don't wana be holding this going into the weekend

[tongosti] 03/9/2021 14:16

Wow - so quiet on here. Guess too many false dawns and folks don't want to jinx it do they. Talk about taking on calculated risk - ready to beef up to a full risk position IF we start picking up steam heading into the close.

[tongosti] 02/9/2021 11:17

Not that convinced yet so opened up only a half risk (for my standards) position - with the view to top up IF there's a decent follow up. Tight stop makes sure one does not join the crowd if the call is wrong. PS. Sorry mg - this is as live as one gets innit

[wan] 02/9/2021 09:01

And the 'perhaps' really interesting thing, is that Amazon has been, and apparently is, testing a lot more than just its own employees.......unless you reside within New York State, as collected samples are required to have a New York State clinical laboratory permit. Amazon has submitted an application for a clinical laboratory permit which is currently under review.

From my understanding though, apparently the collection kits are widely available in other US states.

Unfortunately, Covid infection rates have been on the rise in the US and elsewhere (far more of my close family, relations and friends are currently contracting Covid compared to the previous waves!) -

EU moves to restrict travel from US over rising Covid cases
Council warns that American infection rate is well above the bloc’s safe maximum

Javier Espinoza in Brussels and Kiran Stacey in Washington
AUGUST 30 2021

After a rapid rollout earlier this year, US vaccinations slowed as a significant minority of people became more entrenched in their resistance to getting vaccinated.

As a result, Covid cases in the US have climbed to a level not seen since January, according to an FT analysis of public data — more than three times the rate in the EU. In some states, such as Florida, more people are becoming infected every day than at any point during the pandemic.

[mirandaj] 02/9/2021 08:19

Probably more testing required as time goes on and health checks.

[wan] 01/9/2021 08:12

Targeting Trends in Diabetes Testing
Posted by Chris Wolski | Aug 30, 2021 | Diabetes & Metabolic Diseases

Testing patients’ glycated hemoglobin or HbA1C continues to be the gold standard in clinical settings to determine if they are diabetic or have well-controlled disease. For those who are either at normal or low risk for disease, monitoring A1C twice a year is typically sufficient, and those who need more stringent monitoring or have uncontrolled disease should be monitored up to four times per year, according to Dennis Begos, MD, FACS, FACRS, associate medical director for Medical and Scientific Affairs at Nova Biomedical.

“These tests all paint a picture of where the disease is at,” notes Heidi Cassaletto, senior vice president Portfolio Strategy and Global Marketing for Ortho Clinical Diagnostics.

And with more home testing products coming to market and most primary care physicians using A1C as their go-to testing control, it wouldn’t be a stretch to think that diabetes testing has reached a sort of end point; what we have now is enough.

However, while the experts agree that A1C and glucose testing are well established and can be effective, there’s other testing avenues that may offer better results.

“There’s always a desire to find other controls,” notes Gavin Jones, global product manager for Diabetes Care at EKF Diagnostics. “Glucose monitoring doesn’t always work best.”

Shane O’Neill, global director of Scientific Affairs at EKF, says that, for those patients who are tougher to monitor, glycated albumin (GA) could be the answer.

“It can be harder to monitor some diabetics with A1C who have issues or treatments that affect their red blood cells (RBC),” he says. “GA levels are not affected by the life span of RBC, it is a useful substitute for A1C when the interpretation of A1C is problematic, e.g., in the presence of hemoglobinopathies, iron deficiency, and anemias.”

That being said, he notes that A1C has a specific benefit

“The beauty of A1C is that it is standardized across manufacturers, and has been available for decades and has been the gold standard,” he says. However, one of the limitations of A1C is that it measures a two- to three-month period of a person’s life; in other words, it isn’t as immediate. Particularly for those diabetics with chronic kidney disease (CKD), it’s also not as accurate according to research published by the NCBI2.

This research points to glycated albumin as a more effective way to measure blood glucose control in patients with CKD. And with the number of people worldwide suffering from CKD, this could have significant advantages in monitoring and, more importantly, controlling disease progression.

O’Neill notes that one of the other advantages of measuring glycated albumin is that it fills the gap between at-home and in-lab glucose monitoring and yearly or twice yearly A1C measurements, giving a diagnostic window of the patient’s condition over two to three weeks. He predicts that, as with A1C, glycated albumin tests will eventually become standardized across manufacturers and widely used.

Full article -

Note the reference to Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). Recently I have noticed that Renalytix has utilised, and will monitor HbA1c as part of a new clinical trial. That aside, we know EKF's HbA1c Quo-Test is being upgraded, note in the above article the reference to access -

Beyond testing methodologies, gold standards, and advanced diagnostic and treatment technologies, Begos brings up a larger societal issue related to diabetes testing that needs to be addressed: access.

“Screening can be a particular problem in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), and in remote areas with poor access to laboratory testing, and point-of-care (POC) devices can be useful in these settings,” he says.

For him, one of the most exciting trends related to access is the availability of POC out-of-hospital tests that can allow untrained staff to run A1C and glucose tests, helping to give access to these tests and motivating those even with access to take and even seek out testing.

[wan] 01/9/2021 07:37

Good to note MHC news today -

Medical laboratory accreditation for COVID testing

ISO 15189:2012 accreditation confirms internationally recognised gold standard for MHC lab testing

MyHealthChecked Plc (AIM: MHC), the consumer home-testing healthcare company, announces that it now has ISO 15189:2012 accreditation across the Company's COVID-19 testing service, a mark of confidence that the service meets internationally recognised gold standards for performance and competence.

"We are delighted to now have in place accreditation across our COVID-19 testing service, which is a clear sign to our existing customers and potential new customers that our medical laboratories and operational systems are extremely rigorous and structured around best possible practice within the industry."
Full release -

Quality counts, and as a user of PrimeStore® MTM sample collection devices, it's also an integral part.

[tongosti] 31/8/2021 13:00

Tic toc tic tocWill it happen this time?

[wan] 30/8/2021 07:16

Edit...Correct Luke Daum linkedin link added to above post

[wan] 30/8/2021 06:45

Thanks James (you beat me to it!), I have been following Luke on Linkedin -

The New Beginning. After careful thought and consideration, I am honoured to officially announce that I have accepted the prestigious position of Chief Scientific Officer at EKF Diagnostics. I am grateful to Mike Salter and the EKF Family who have supported me this past year. I have a lot to prove and even more to offer, and I can’t wait to get started!

[james188] 30/8/2021 06:39

Luke Daum of Longhorn Vaccines & Diagnostics (the driving force behind the PrimeStore MTM and ATM collection devices) has recently tweeted that he has accepted the post of Chief Scientific Officer at EKF. Not clear of this is full time or whether he will combine it with his similar role at Longhorn, but no doubt we will hear more shortly from EKF.
I think that it is a very positive development. It also underlines he importance of EKF’s US operations. I wonder if the company will look at a dual listing at some point.

[pldazzle] 28/8/2021 10:44

Many thanks wan

[wan] 28/8/2021 10:08

pldazzle, apologies for the delayed reply regarding SBI while I gathered my thoughts etc.

I don't share your intrigue in the parallels between SBI and EKF. EKF is a reliable and respected global manufacturer and contract manufacturer of point of care products (soon to include home diagnostics), central laboratory products, and specialised life science products, serving and supplying important operators such as SBI, and indeed much larger global players too e.g. Roche, ThermoFisher to name but two (not to mention an even larger private sector partner!). With key relationships/partnerships playing an important and determining element in the degree of success for the related parties.

Both companies are in parallel though in terms of being in growth mode and cash generative, which includes but is 'not limited' to Covid-19 testing, but at different ends of the testing spectrum. Put another way, SBI is closer to the patient. Julian Baines recently described EKF as supplying the picks and shovels to the Covid testing opportunity, I think that that analogy will be even more applicable but in a much wider context in terms of the global opportunity created by the pandemic in elevating healthcare and diagnostics to a different level!

So, both companies are operating in a 'similar' space in terms of addressing healthcare and diagnostics markets, at a very important time, and a time span that is likely to represent a long-term multi-year opportunity, which in turn puts them both in play regarding merger and acquisitions, with both companies also indicating an interest in complementary, earnings-enhancing acquisitions with key strategic value. Arguably, both could be diners as well as being on the menu.

However, I don't think we need worry too much about EKF being bought out anytime soon, well I certainly hope not as I am very confident about EKF delivering on their growth strategy. And I am further encouraged by the new era of Mike Salter becoming CEO, who has been both instrumental and an excellent cultivator of EKF growth already, and I am confident there is far more potential yet to be realised.

This new EKF era in turn enables the current CEO to focus on delivering further value from the Company’s relationship with Mount Sinai Innovation Partners. With excellent growth and value creation prospects, a progressive dividend policy to boot, and subsequently EKF shares in demand, what's not to like!

[wan] 28/8/2021 10:05

Thanks pldazzle.

It highlights another important user (among many) and indeed the key rationale and attributes of using PrimeStore MTM, so I hope you don't mind me cut and pasting it below (for ease of navigation) -

4.40 Introduction of PrimeStore Transport Medium

In order to alleviate some of the pressures placed on service delivery and to improve the turnaround time for COVID-19 results, the Virology department implemented the use of PrimeStore (Longhorn Vaccines and Diagnostics, USA) molecular transport medium in December 2020 for the collection of COVID-19 test samples within the Trust. This new medium contains chemicals which have been demonstrated by PHE to inactive SARS- CoV2, rendering it non-infectious within 10 minutes. MFT was the first Trust in the UK to implement this novel transport medium, significantly reducing the time taken for samples to be tested in the laboratory by eliminating the ‘make safe’ step required to inactivate samples prior to testing.

Since the introduction of the new transport medium for all patient testing within the Trust, the compliance with the 24-hour turnaround time for testing has significantly increased for both ORC and Wythenshawe sites (chart 4)

[shanklin] 28/8/2021 10:05

Its p316 of 424 albeit its labelled p25 for no apparenet reason.

[pldazzle] 28/8/2021 09:21

Some months old, but nonetheless interesting
See para 4.40 on page 25

[travestor] 28/8/2021 05:42

Wan, thanks for the Lloyds Pharmacy link and their using MHC tests, your recollection is confirmed (that they have a primestore contract) by opening the "what's included" when you purchase the kit:

What's included
1x Sterile CE marked flocked swab
1 x 5.0ml tube containing 1.5ml of PrimeStore MTM inactivation media within a labelled biohazard ShuttlePouch containing an absorbent pad
1 x Instructions for use
1 x Essential checklist card
1 x Return postage bag
1 x Royal Mail tracked 24 postage label

[sirshagalot] 27/8/2021 15:45

EKF GOING UP

[rivaldo] 27/8/2021 15:30

Good to see the share price consolidating at 80p and above. About ready for a push upwards before the results on 14th September methinks.

[mg1982] 27/8/2021 14:11

Not at all Mr Tongster, not at all. I've got a bit longer time horizon than you.

Still waiting for you to claim to be in this before it goes up. You must have lost a lot of money trading this to be still around despite so many other easier trades

[tongosti] 27/8/2021 13:05

Our clueless friend Mg must be really praying for a breakout isn't he. Been a long wait for him innit