Scalable, sustainable and cost-effective antigen manufacturing platform for a rapid mobilisation during the current Covid-19 pandemic and possible future outbreaks

21世纪迎来了冠状病毒大流行，如2002-2004年的SARS，2012-2018年的MERS，以及目前的新冠肺炎\。这些感染导致数十万人死亡，但我们不知道如何治疗或预防它们。我们无法识别受新冠肺炎影响的人，这导致了感染在全球范围内传播，每天造成数以千计的人死亡。为阻止疫情而采取的绝望封锁措施使许多国家和广大地理区域陷入停滞。如果不能通过及时和准确的感染检测方法来完全预防新冠肺炎的所有这些压倒性影响，则可以将其降至最低。抗原和抗体检测是可以检测到当前或过去的病毒感染的方法，对于控制新冠肺炎的传播是不可或缺的。然而，开发和生产可靠的检测需要时间和关键成分--重组产生的病毒片段--的可用性。全球范围的大流行给科学和工业带来了巨大的压力，以供应这一诊断测试的关键组件。在撰写本文时，已有20个SARS-CoV2抗体试剂盒获得了食品和药物管理局(FDA)的紧急使用授权。这些都不是源自英国。对政府施加的以实验室为基础的大规模血清检测的潜在压力，加速了来自国外的劣质试剂盒的采用，这些试剂盒的表现在非大流行情况下是不可接受的。国内行业能够也必须扭转局面。达累斯伯里蛋白公司将创建一个可持续的生产平台，并部署他们的技术在最短的时间内制造出急需的优质抗原，以加快生产可靠和负担得起的新冠肺炎检测试剂盒。这种可扩展且经济高效的平台的出现，将消除未来供应链的任何问题，并保证国内诊断行业的世界领先地位。

The 21st century ushered the advent of coronaviral pandemics such as SARS in 2002-2004, MERS in 2012-2018 and presently Covid-19\.These infections killed hundreds of thousands of people yet we do not know how to treat or prevent them. Our inability to identify people affected by Covid-19, has led to the spread of the infection on a global scale, causing thousands of deaths on a daily basis. Desperate lockdown measures to stop the pandemic brought many countries and vast geographical regions to a standstill. All these overwhelming effects of Covid-19 could be minimised if not completely prevented by timely and accurate ways to detect the infection.Antigen and antibody detection tests are such methods which can detect the current or past viral infection and are indispensable for the control of Covid-19 spread. However, the development and production of reliable tests require time and the availability of their key components -- viral fragments produced recombinantly. The global scale of pandemic puts a massive strain on the science and industry to supply this key component of diagnostic tests.At the time of writing, there have been 20 SARS-CoV2 antibody kits received Emergency Use Authorisation by Food and Drug Administration, FDA. None of those originated in the UK.Immense pressure on the Government to enable laboratory-based mass serological testing has hastened the adoption of the inferior quality kits sourced from abroad, the performance of which would have been found to be unacceptable in non-pandemic circumstances. Domestic industry can and must turn the tide.Daresbury Proteins will create a sustainable production platform and deploy their technology to manufacture much-needed quality antigens in the shortest timeframe to expedite the production of reliable and affordable Covid-19 testing kits. The availability of such a scalable and cost-effective platform will eliminate any issues with supply chain in the future and warrant a world-leading position of domestic diagnostic industry.