The high court has rejected a legal challenge to the government's award of multimillion-pound contracts.
The health and social care secretary's decision to grant three contracts to Abingdon Health was the subject of litigation by the Good Law Project.
There were allegations of bias, conflict of interest and lack of transparency, but they were all dismissed by the court.
Assessment of the award of the contracts must involve assuming market conditions which include the urgent need for the development of an effective antibody LFT that could be used for mass home-testing, as well as some uncertainty, according to a judgement published on Friday. These were policy considerations which have to be ignored.
The GLP did not have legal standing to bring the claim if any of the grounds had succeeded. In reaching his conclusion, he cited the decision in the earlier challenge brought by GLP and the Runnymede Trust to the August 2020 appointment of Conservative peer Dido Harding as interim executive chair of the National Institute for Health Protection.
Abingdon Health said in a statement that it had received £10.3m from the Department of Health and Social Care under the three contracts awarded in April, June and August of 2020.
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Chris Yates, the CEO of Abingdon Health, said the company did the right thing by responding quickly but had been caught in a political cross-fire. Abingdon's reputation and good standing has been called into question by the GLP.
Most of the tests bought by the DHSC from Abingdon were not used, according to the judgement.
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