COVID-19 test pioneer hopes for quick approval as ASX listing looms

A blood test company with heavyweight backing is confident of getting approval to sell its COVID-19 testing equipment within weeks.

John Kelly is the CEO and founder of Atomo Diagnostics. Picture: Hollie Adams

The blood test company backed by billionaire property developer Lang Walker, former Macquarie Bank CEO Allan Moss and a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-backed social impact fund is confident of getting regulatory approval to sell its COVID-19 rapid testing equipment to health professionals in Australia “within weeks” after receiving a second purchase order for the product from French diagnostics company, NG Biotech.

Ahead of its listing on the Australian Securities Exchange on Thursday, the first company to make its ASX debut in the past six weeks amid volatile global sharemarkets, Atomo Diagnostics founder and chief executive John Kelly said the company was keen to ensure its COVID-19 testing product was made available ­locally.

“We are in regular discussions with the TGA (Therapeutic Goods Administration). We would be thinking this is kind of weeks, not months, in terms of getting approvals,’’ Mr Kelly said on Wednesday.

He said depending on the terms of the approval, Atomo could be initially selling the product to public health services and private clinics.

But it would also be keen to secure approval for self-testing. The Atomo HIV Self Test is the only such test to have been approved by the TGA.

“We have a device ideally suited for that,’’ he said.

Atomo said it had received a second purchase order from NG Biotech to supply an additional 550,000 integrated test devices for the rapid blood-based testing of antibodies produced in response to COVID- 19 for the period from May to July 2020.

The order follows an initial purchase order with the French firm for 397,200 devices in late March and is part of a supply agreement to provide NG Biotech with the right to purchase up to a total of 2.465 million devices during 2020.

“The first agreement was material. What is significant about this is that it is the follow-on order. It is not just a one-off,’’ Mr Kelly said.

Funds from the IPO will be used to accelerate the planned expansion of Atomo’s production capacity to meet the anticipated demand.

“That is now our priority. We sold all of our on-hand inventory to our French partner. We are actively expanding our production capacity. We are looking to more than double it over the nine months. We think the demand is there for the product,’’ he said.

Strong institutional and retail investor demand led to the company raising a total of $30m at the offer price of 20c per share. Atomo will list with a market capitalisation of $112m and an enterprise value of $80.31m.

“Trying to do an IPO in these markets is very challenging but we got there,’’ Mr Kelly said.