Infectious Diseases
Market Report Explores UK Dx, Technologies for 2010-2018
A market report covering tests, instrumentation, and emerging technologies for infectious diseases in the United Kingdom has been published by Research and Markets. The report by the Dublin-based firm features the test volume and sales forecasts for a broad range of diseases conducted in UK hospitals, blood banks, public health labs, and commercial labs between 2010 and 2018. In addition, the report covers 2010 test sales and market share for leading suppliers. The report features...
GE, InDevR Developing POC Device for Flu Diagnosis
GE Global Research, GE's central technology development arm, has been awarded a program through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop a medical device that can diagnose the flu and other infectious diseases such as malaria, E. coli and salmonella at the point-of-care. In addition to making an accurate diagnosis, another key goal of the device is to be readily adapted for new strains of diseases so that new diagnostic tests can be rapidly developed. GE scientists will...
New Diagnostic Process Improves Patient Care, Decreases Hospital Costs
Kettering Medical Center has realized a positive financial impact of $3.7 million in the past year as the result of a change in standard operating procedures using a new testing technology that diagnoses a wide variety of infectious diseases faster and more accurately than traditional testing. “This unique diagnostic technology allows us to diagnose patients faster, and the faster we can provide treatment the faster our patients heal,” said Carol Quinter, PhD, Director of Kettering...
Qiagen, Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology to Develop TB Assay
Qiagen NV and the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology (MPIIB), Department of Immunology have announced a new collaboration to develop a molecular diagnostic test to assess the risk of an individual with latent tuberculosis (TB) developing active TB disease during their lifetime. Financial terms were not disclosed. As a follow-up to those who test positive for latent TB, this new test will be designed to enable early treatment before reactivation of the TB disease, when it becomes...
Phthisis Diagnostics Wins $500K in Grant Awards
Charlottesville-based Phthisis Diagnostics Inc.  has been awarded over half a million dollars in a combination of grants from the Commonwealth of Virginia.  Phthisis will receive a Commercialization Program grant of $499,477 and a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Matching Funds award for $49,400 (total of $548,877) through the Commonwealth Research Commercialization Fund (CRCF).   Virginia’s Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) announced that the company was one...
Alere Test Receives Prequalification from WHO
The World Health Organization (WHO) has prequalified the Alere Pima CD4 Test as part of an effort to increase access to rapid and accurate HIV/AIDS monitoring tools. The Alere Pima CD4 Test is the first and only point-of-care diagnostic designed for the measurement of absolute CD4 counts to receive such recognition from the WHO, which released its most recent list of prequalified products on November 25, 2011. The WHO’s evaluation consists of an in-depth product assessment, an inspection...
Abbott Introduces Supplemental Blood Test for Chagas Disease
Abbott received approval from FDA for a new Chagas in vitro diagnostic test. The Abbott ESA Chagas is the first FDA-approved supplemental test that detects antibodies to Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi), a parasite found only in the Americas and commonly acquired through contact with the blood-sucking triatomine, also known as a kissing bug. The test will be used as an additional, more specific test on human serum or plasma specimens found repeatedly reactive using a licensed screening test....
Quest Diagnostics Gets CE Mark for Cytomegalovirus Test
Quest Diagnostics Inc. announced that its Focus Diagnostics business has CE marked its new Simplexa Cytomegalovirus (CMV) molecular test kit on the 3M Integrated Cycler for distribution to approximately 35 countries in Europe. The test is designed to enable hospital labs to perform advanced molecular testing for cytomegalovirus (CMV), a potentially fatal virus infection in patients with compromised immunity, particularly those undergoing organ transplantation. The Simplexa CMV test employs real...
Federal Contract Awarded to Oxford Diagnostic Laboratories for TB Testing
Oxford Immunotec Inc. announced that the National Acquisition Center of the Department of Veterans Affairs has awarded a Federal Supply Schedule contract to Oxford Diagnostic Laboratories for T-SPOT.TB testing. This contract will be effective from November 1, 2011 through October 31, 2016. Oxford Diagnostic Laboratories, a division of Oxford Immunotec, is the only national TB testing service exclusively dedicated to the T-SPOT.TB test. The laboratory,...
Siemens, Illumina Partner on Infectious Disease Testing Using Next-Generation Sequencing
Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics and Illumina have entered into a partnership aimed at setting new standards in the use of next-generation sequencing for the rapid, accurate identification of patients’ infectious disease states and potential treatment paths. Through this agreement, the companies plan to make existing Siemens molecular HIV tests compatible with the recently launched Illumina MiSeq next-generation sequencing platform, with the ultimate goal of introducing breakthrough...