Novacyt and Yourgene Health to produce coronavirus test products in UK

FILE PHOTO: Fake blood is seen in test tubes labelled with the coronavirus (COVID-19) in this illustration

PARIS (Reuters) - Healthcare companies Novacyt and Yourgene Health Plc said on Wednesday that they would be teaming up to produce coronavirus testing products in the United Kingdom.

Yourgene's manufacturing facility in Manchester will be used to expand Novacyt's production capacity of the COVID-19 test.

The first batches of the critical components are expected to be shipped from the Manchester site to Novacyt's Primerdesign unit in Southampton over the next few weeks.

"As the global demand for our COVID-19 test continues to increase, we are pleased to have rapidly established a relationship with the expert team at Yourgene to further expand our manufacturing capacity," Novacyt CEO Graham Mullis said.

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; editing by Jason Neely)