Setting up a philanthropic genomic testing marketplace
10 Jul 2022
Mike Hudson tells the story of how one not-for-profit has helped UK Covid testing laboratories and generated £2.5 million for good causes over the past two years. Now, the team has started a charitable foundation and is expanding the work to tackle other diseases…
Two years ago, I started a Covid-19 not-for-profit, TestRAMP, which has helped UK Covid testing laboratories and generated c £2.5 million for good causes. We’re now expanding to work with the same labs on tackling other diseases. We’ve also just started a charitable fund, TestAID.
In spring of 2020, with no Covid vaccines on the horizon, the WHO told the world to “Test, Test, Test”. Matt Hancock implored UK laboratories to help so the UK could test more.
My partner, a GP, was working in a Covid hub and I was frustrated I couldn’t do as much to help in the pandemic. So, two years ago I started the not-for-profit, TestRAMP, with the idea of encouraging as much Covid testing as possible. I reached out to numerous labs, finding those who could already do PCR, and helping other labs to start.
In time, the government required all international arrivals to pay to be PCR tested. Covid testing had become commercial. TestRAMP set up a marketplace to connect companies who needed to carry out testing with the PCR labs that could do it for them and started charging fees. We arranged subcontracting between labs to manage supply and demand and helped source sequencing.
We set up an industry initiative, Labsure, to help make the system more resilient
All positive PCR tests are genomically sequenced to find potentially dangerous new variants. We’ve worked with labs to make sure testing works smoothly, and where labs have had problems, we’ve stepped in to help. We set up an industry initiative, Labsure, to help make the system more resilient.
During the pandemic, we generated c £2.4million in fees. I haven’t taken a salary, so most of this will be donated, less taxes. We’ve already given £1 million to Alzheimer’s Society and ZSL, jointly, £50k to Pilgrim’s Hospices, and we’ve provided an initial donation of £1 million to TestAid, my new charitable foundation. Most of the rest will follow soon.
Now, we’re expanding TestRAMP into diagnostic testing for other serious diseases, such as cancer and Alzheimer’s. We’ve helped a lot of UK labs with Covid, and we think we can help them roll out innovative new tests for other diseases, at the same time reducing pressure on the NHS. In February we set up the TestAid Foundation, a restricted fund operating under the auspices of Prism the Gift Fund, registered charity no. 1099682.
In due course we want TestAid to be able to partner with other donors in the diagnostics industry to support good causes relevant to the life sciences.
Mike Hudson founded TestRAMP, Labsure and TestAid, testramp.org
