Another day, another chance for investors to reward innovative firms rallying to the Government’s call to supply more ventilators.
A small research and development outfit Science Group has become the latest firm to design a ventilator from scratch.
The AIM-listed business – whose Sagentia subsidiary is responsible for the machines – has signed an agreement with the Government to provide 10,000 of them if regulators at the Medical and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) approve.
Desperately needed: AIM-listed business Science Group has become the latest firm to design a ventilator from scratch
The Government is scrambling to order at least 30,000 ventilators so that the NHS does not get overwhelmed when coronavirus cases peak.
It has put in orders for more than 60,000, thought to be a strategy to hedge its bets in case one of a cluster of projects fail to deliver.
Cambridge -based Science Group has sent 20 prototypes to the MHRA to be prodded, poked and tested – and believes its model could be simpler to produce than others because it doesn’t require parts that need to be sourced externally.
Science Group insists it can make them itself or by working in partnership with sub-contractors – mirroring promises from industrial heavyweight Dyson.
Shares in Science Group surged 10.8 per cent yesterday, or 20p, to 205p, adding almost £8million to the company’s market value, which now stands at around £86million.
And defence stalwart Babcock International (up 7 per cent, or 25.2p, to 383.2p) has also inked an order in principle with the Government to provide 10,000 ventilators if the MHRA gives it the green light.
It is working with Germanowned firm Draeger, which makes medical equipment. Shares in engineering business Smiths Group – another firm working on a ventilator project – also climbed. FTSE 100-listed Smiths (up 9.9 per cent, or 110.5p, to 1226p) has provided an existing design to Ventilator Challenge UK, which is a consortium of major businesses.
Smiths has paused a separation that was meant to be completed by the summer of the division responsible for the ventilator, Smiths Medical, and scrapped its interim dividend.
The boost from Smiths helped the Footsie accelerate 2 per cent, or 108.22 points higher, to 5671.96 last night.
It was boosted by rises in the shares of cigarette giants Imperial Brands (up 12.3 per cent, or 163.8p, to 1496.8p) and British American Tobacco (up 4.7 per cent, or 124p, to 2759p), which both signed deals for new credit to help them weather any slowdowns during the coronavirus outbreak.
Shares in major mining firms also ramped up, with Anglo American (up 5.9 per cent, or 78.6p, to 1416.4p), Rio Tinto (up 1.2 per cent, or 44.5p, to 3718.5p) and BHP (up 2.8 per cent, or 33.8p, to 1252p) edging higher as data showed industry in China starting up again after a drastic slowdown amid measures to halt the spread of coronavirus.
And Hikma Pharmaceuticals rose 3.6 per cent, or 70.5p, to 2035p, as, in non-Covid-19 news, a district court in the US ruled one of its generic drugs does not infringe six patent laws.
Figures showed supermarkets had enjoyed a March even busier than Christmas as panic shoppers spent £10.8billion stacking up on food and other goods. Swindon-based retailer WH Smith rose 7.7 per cent, or 82p, to 1141p as it inked a deal with Sainsbury’s to sell groceries in hospitals.
Sainsbury’s stock rose by a more modest 0.1 per cent, or 0.2p, to 210.4p. Vimto-maker Nichols (up 0.4 per cent, or 5p, to 1200p) and the AA (up 3 per cent, or 0.5p, to 17p) jointed the dividend-cancelling parade.
The motoring association, founded in 1905, said it hadn’t seen any impact on trading yet but was bracing for possible disruption.
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