Shares of Manchester-based Yourgene Health plc rose more than 30% on Wednesday after it announced the signing of an agreement with Novacyt S.A. to support the production of COVID-19 diagnostic tests developed by Primerdesign, Novacyt’s molecular diagnostics division.

“Yourgene will make use of its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility at Citylabs in Manchester, UK, to work alongside Novacyt to ramp-up production of their COVID-19 test,” said Yourgene.

“The first batches are expected to be shipped from the Citylabs site over the next few weeks.

“In the interest of speed, the company will initially manufacture critical components for Primerdesign’s COVID-19 test.

“The two companies may subsequently seek to expand the agreement to utilize Yourgene’s ability to produce final versions of the COVID-19 testing kits.”

Yourgene CEO Lyn Rees said: “We are pleased to be able to utilise our high quality manufacturing skills to support Novacyt in the production of a key diagnostic test for COVID-19. 

“This manufacturing agreement illustrates that we have an incredibly skilled workforce and flexible manufacturing capabilities to support diagnostic test developers at critical times.  

“Business demand for our core products and services is proving to be very resilient to current market conditions, albeit with isolated areas of friction for travel or customs restrictions.

“I would like to thank our committed workforce for their tremendous endeavours in supporting the medical supply chain at this time.”