Ministers are preparing to issue a rallying cry to British industry to build a home antibody test that would help exit the lockdown, The Times has learnt.

Biotech companies will be asked to work together to produce a finger-prick testing kit accurate enough to be sent to millions of homes in an echo of the effort by manufacturing companies to build more ventilators.

Chris Smyth, Whitehall Editor | Alex Ralph, Business Correspondent www.thetimes.co.uk 

Antibody tests that identify people who have recovered from coronavirus are regarded as a key long-term route out of the restrictions. The Times revealed this week that none of the products ordered and evaluated by the government had proven good enough to use in mass testing.

As part of a “national effort”, Matt Hancock, the health secretary, is expected to ask companies to work with government scientists to improve the performance of antibody tests to create an effective British product.

While the UK bought off-the-shelf tests from China and elsewhere, the government would prefer to work with scientists to create a home-grown test. Countries around the world are encouraging their biotech industries to give priority to domestic needs, and ministers believe that the same approach makes sense for Britain.

A government source said: “We have some of the finest scientific minds in the world working in different areas and we want to bring people together to deliver these tests.”

Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, made the first official acknowledgement yesterday that Britain’s inability to increase the scale of the antigen test, which identifies people showing symptoms, had cost lives.

Asked why deaths were rising more slowly in Germany than in other European countries, he told a Downing Street press conference: “We all know that Germany got ahead in terms of its ability to do testing for the virus. There’s a lot to learn from that and we’ve been trying to learn the lessons.”

Mr Hancock has promised 100,000 daily tests by the end of the month so that all NHS staff who are self-isolating can be checked for the virus. On Monday, 14,006 tests were carried out and Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, who is deputising for Boris Johnson, appeared to distance himself from the commitment yesterday. “The health secretary is very clear on the target,” he said, adding there was “clearly more work to do”.

Industry has welcomed the plan to develop an antibody test, saying that a national focus also makes sense at a time when global supply chains are so disrupted. John Newton, the national testing co-ordinator, said that government scientists were aiming to work with British companies who were working on such products to come up with one that was accurate.

“There are encouraging signs that in the UK our scientists are able to identify antigens and antibodies, which could be the basis of an excellent test,” he said.

“There are testing manufacturers who we think could help with this, which of course would be great if we could have a home-produced test.”

Public Health England has developed a lab-based antibody test that is being used in a research programme at Porton Down, but the ultimate goal is a finger-prick test that could be sent through the post in bulk and give people results in minutes.

Even products that appear about 95 per cent accurate are not considered good enough to send to millions of people because of the risk that large numbers would be wrongly told that they were immune.

Mr Hancock will use a call with industry today to ask for ideas on new ways of testing that can get to 10,000 people a day within two months. Britain’s two biggest pharmaceutical groups are working with Cambridge University to help to accelerate testing.

Glaxosmithkline and Astrazeneca plan to set up a new facility within the university’s Anne McLaren laboratory that it hopes will provide 30,000 antigen tests a day. However, it will only be fully operational by early next month, when it is looking to produce tests in their low thousands.

The lab will also explore the use of alternative chemical reagents for test kits to help to overcome the present supply shortages.