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Shares in a Manchester-based molecular diagnostics company have surged by 50% after it gained approval to send Covid-19 testing kits to India.

Genedrive, which is listed on AIM, issued a statement following the steep rise in its share price, confirming it had received a license to send its Genedrive SARS-CoV-2 Kit to India via its partner DIVOC Health.

It added that this step follows the approval of the product at the Indian Centre for Medical Research on April 30, 2021.

The statement said: "As previously stated, India has introduced pricing controls in their routine public testing market that favours the provision of lower cost/basic tests than the Genedrive SARS-Cov-2 Kit.

"The company continues to assess specific commercial opportunities with DIVOC Health in the Indian public and private markets."

In April CEO David Budd said: "We are very happy to achieve formal registration of our Covid PCR testsin India.

"Although the process took longer than anticipated, the performance data is excellent and will support the commercial process and customer engagement. Formal product approval is an excellent testament to our technology."

Genedrive kit is a Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) assay designed to detect active SARS-CoV-2 infection in Covid-19 patients.