The Test of Time

Diagnostics company Randox has played a key role during the COVID-19 pandemic by becoming the largest testing lab in the UK and Ireland. Here, its operations director Linda Magee talks tests, travel and further innovation in COVID testing.

Operations Director, Linda Magee.

At the time of print, Randox had completed no less than 12 million COVID-19 tests UK wide. It’s come a long way since the initial few weeks of the pandemic when its former lab only had capacity for 150 tests a day. But, then, a lot has happened in 14 months at the business.

“It’s been a roller coaster,” Linda says, reflecting on a whirlwind year. “But it’s been worthwhile and really enjoyable,” she continues.

Today, Randox, which has become the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s newest patron organisation, has 23 Randox testing clinics, more than 200 partnered testing clinics and 80 plus drop box collection points for home testing.

“We have very talented molecular biologists here who were able to adapt quickly when the pandemic started and when the government was looking for wide-scale testing, that allowed us to put ourselves forward.

“We were able to say that we had the endto-end test ready to take to the market. Back then we had a capacity to complete 150 tests per day but as time went on it became much more critical to do more and so we set up the structure to allow for that.”

Randox testing is performed using PCR methods in its certified laboratories, including its £85m lab, which was its former 80,000sq ft warehouse in Antrim.

“We were in a good position and we were prepared to invest,” adds Linda. “And today we’re processing around 120,000 tests daily. It’s a phenomenal number and it was hard to imagine when we were a small part of the testing programme that we would become the highest capacity laboratory for COVID-19 testing in the UK and Ireland.”

Randox also played a key role in nursing home testing, while its latest developments and offsite testing will be instrumental in getting the world travelling again, Linda says.

An increasing number of countries are asking for a negative PCR test as a means of proof that travellers do not have the COVID-19 virus. Some countries may ask for a PCR test which has undergone a certified laboratory process, the kind Randox offers, while others may request the more simplified antigen versions, which Randox also offers.

To accommodate what could very well become an essential part of travel for many in the near future, Randox has set up testing sites offering next-day results at John Lennon Airport, Belfast International Airport, George Best Belfast City Airport, Heathrow and Dublin Airport, with many more in the pipeline. The turnaround on these tests is typically 12 to 24 hours.

And as Randox has recently entered into partnerships with the likes of British Airways, Easyjet, Ryanair and The Advantage Travel Partnership, the UK’s largest independent travel agent partnership, Linda anticipates the service being a requirement for the foreseeable future.

“It’s all largely unknown at present and while we have been very successful in rolling out the vaccine, other countries are not working at that pace. There will still be concerns that, even if you are vaccinated, you could still spread the virus and there are other concerns over new strains. The nature of this virus means it can mutate so I don’t see testing vanishing quickly. It will live hand in hand with the vaccination programme.”

That insight is perhaps why the company has plans to pair up with places like ferry terminals and other points of entry and exit into and out of the UK and Ireland.

“There appears to us to be a public desire to travel and we certainly feel there is a market there. I do believe people will tolerate the inconvenience of testing when they leave or return and the scope for us is to expand into ferry terminals and other areas. We’re looking to ramp up. We’re a testing lab and we can do that.”

And with that higher volume demand comes a lower priced PCR test, Linda adds.

“There was a lot of publicity about travel becoming elite because it’s not a cheap test, but if you can increase volume and flow, that allows you to reduce costs.”

Randox recently announced that it has reduced the cost of PCR tests to support travel to £60 per test. Formerly, PCR tests cost from £100 each, and often much more.

The announcement came on the back of the Department for Transport’s plans to open up overseas travel, potentially from as early as 17 May, but dependent on PCR testing predeparture and on return. Specific PCR testing requirements will be based on the grading of destination countries within a green, amber and red traffic light system.

Allowing it to meet the cohorts of tests set to flow into the lab will be the company’s larger workforce.

Throughout its COVID programme, it employed over 850 people.

Some of those were students working part time, and out of that 850, 700 are still employed even as testing reduces in some instances.

“We moved some to other parts of the business, including into R&D, business and quality roles. There are so many different roles involved in COVID testing; from the more strictly scientific roles to technicians and the support mechanism roles where you don’t need a scientific background. If you look at our logistics, there are more than 100,000 samples coming in; that’s no small feat to process. All these systems grow together.

“The talent we have access to is phenomenal,” Linda continues. “We’ve encountered very young people who are incredibly focused and it’s been really heartwarming to see these people come in and work well. Those staff have thrown themselves into this whole operation.”

The swift response to the pandemic will stand Randox in great stead in the future when it comes to other testing areas, Linda believes. Those areas include developments in food testing, respiratory, chronic kidney disease and “all manners” of other conditions.

“The next stage in COVID testing will focus on sequencing and that will be crucial to the variants,” she continues. “The testing capacity was going down as positivity rates went down, and in lockdown people don’t test as much so that allowed us to turn to sequencing.”

Sequencing allows labs to cherry-pick tests and analyse positive samples which will allow for identification of mutations that arise in the genome and identify how those new variants of the virus can change how people respond to treatments and vaccines.

“We know what the formula is now for rapid testing and in a sense it’s become easier to scale up. We’ve learned so much over the last year and now it’s about ramping testing up further.

“But none of this would have been possible without the talent we have on board. They’ve worked phenomenally hard and it wasn’t easy. The pandemic has been close to everyone’s hearts and we pulled together and are thrilled to be part of history. We’re now looking forward to the next part that is sequencing,” Linda says.

“We have very talented molecular biologists here who were able to adapt quickly when the pandemic started and when the government was looking for wide-scale testing, that allowed us to put ourselves forward.”