Roche Diagnostics ‘provides innovative HIV test options’

Roche Diagnostics has announced that its new fully-automated Cobas AmpliPrep/Cobas TaqMan HIV-1 test can provide clinicians with novel options for combining sensitive HIV tests with automation to simplify testing for the condition.

This week, the HIV-1 test was approved for use by the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA), becoming the first diagnostic tool for HIV-1 that is fully automated using real-time polymerase chain reaction technology available in the US.

Providing a wider measure of viral load data than previously available diagnostic tools, the test can quantify amounts of HIV in the blood ranging from much higher to much lower levels while providing a more rapid delivery of these results.

Severin Schwan, chief executive officer or Roche Diagnostics, said: “The new test system provides innovative options for combining a more sensitive HIV test with full automation that simplifies state-of-the-art molecular diagnostic testing.”

He added that the approval granted by the FDA marked a landmark in the automation of the company’s virology platform.

In January 2007, Roche Diagnostics announced the initiation of an investigation of the Cobas AmpliPrep/Cobas TaqMan as a means of detecting the levels of hepatitis C virus present in blood at a range of levels.