Abbott receives CE Mark for Architect diabetes test

Abbott has been granted European CE Mark approval for the Architect clinical chemistry haemoglobin A1c test, for use in the monitoring and detection of diabetes.

This blood test measures a patient's average blood glucose levels over the past three months and can be used not only for diagnosing the disease, but also to determine a person's risk of developing it.

More than 371 million people worldwide were living with diabetes in 2012, with around half of this total remaining undiagnosed and therefore at greater risk of suffering serious health complications later on in life.

The new Architect test is being made available in several countries throughout Europe, Asia, Latin America, Canada and Africa, with US approval of the product still pending.

Christian Fischer, senior medical director for diagnostic products at Abbott, said: "The new Architect clinical chemistry haemoglobin A1c test provides physicians with important information that may help patients take critical steps to manage the progression of this very serious disease."

Last month, the firm received CE Mark approval for the Architect Galectin-3 assay, a new test for helping determine the prognosis of chronic heart failure patients.