Qiagen launches QuantiFERON-TB in China

Qiagen has announced its Chinese commercial launch of QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube, the company's pioneering blood test to accurately diagnose Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection, the bacterium that can cause tuberculosis (TB).

In other countries around the world, QuantiFERON-TB has become the TB test of choice, providing significant advancement on the century-old tuberculin skin test in screening for TB infection. 

The test recently gained approval from the China Food and Drug Administration and the launch has been scheduled to coincide with World TB Day 2014 this week.

"Use of QuantiFERON-TB to screen vulnerable populations is growing rapidly in the US, Europe and other markets and we are focusing on this important product as one of QIAGEN's global growth drivers," said Peer Schatz, Qiagen's chief executive officer. 

According to the World Health Organization, China has an estimated one million new cases of active TB each year, which is the second highest figure in the world behind India.