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- Following recent trading activity, Atomo Diagnostics (AT1) has hit back at a letter from the ASX’s Listings Compliance office
- The letter queried Atomo’s share price change, which jumped from $0.21 on December 24 to a high of $0.285 on December 29
- Atomo Diagnostics responded it was not aware of any information concerning its business that has not been announced to the market
- However, it highlighted two media articles which referenced the company, drawing media attention to its COVID-19 rapid antigen testing
- Atomo Diagnostics dropped 3.77 per cent, trading at 25.5 cents at 12:45 pm AEDT
Following recent trading activity, Atomo Diagnostics (AT1) has hit back at a letter from the ASX’s Listings Compliance office.
The letter queried Atomo’s share price change, which jumped from $0.21 on December 24 to a high of $0.285 on December 29, as well as the “significant increase” in the volume of shares traded.
Atomo Diagnostics responded that the company was not aware of any information concerning its business that was not previously announced to the market.
However, Atomo highlighted two articles which referenced the company, drawing media attention to its COVID-19 rapid antigen testing. The articles detailed the NSW government’s purchase of 20 million rapid antigen tests, while Victoria secured 34 million kits.
Atomo announced in October a new agreement with Access Bio, which provided Atomo with the right to purchase up to 10 million COVID-19 rapid antigen tests for use in professional settings, along with 10 million COVID-19 rapid antigen self-tests.
The company’s current focus is on developing and commercialising antigen-based tests and has been pushing Australians for a wider take-up of rapid tests to ease the pressure on the lab-based PCR testing.
John Kelly, chief executive of Atomo Diagnostics, said Australia must catch up with the rest of the world when it comes to widespread use of rapid testing.
The Herald Sun reported that, with testing sites around the nation swamped and results taking days to arrive, Mr Kelly said it’s time health authorities rethink their reliance on costly testing for COVID.
“If the current situation doesn’t make that clear, I’m not sure what would. Rapid testing is one of the key pillars of Covid response,” Mr Kelly said.
“There’s no national rapid test strategy and we’ve been waiting two years for this to happen. I don’t understand why as a nation we are not better prepared.”
Atomo Diagnostics dropped 3.77 per cent, trading at 25.5 cents per share at 12:45 pm AEDT.
