RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche has obtained approval in the United States for an automated test which and is able to detect coronavirus cases faster. The technology is capable of increasing detection speed by as much as ten times, when compared to Roche’s most common test, according to Bloomberg.
The test obtained emergency approval from the FDA, the US Department of Health body in charge of approving food and new drugs in the pharmaceutical industry. It is the third emergency approval given by the FDA to coronavirus tests, but only the first with the potential for commercial application.
Given the new technology, Roche’s shares, which are publicly traded in Switzerland, rose 8.3 percent at 8 AM on Friday, March 13th. The remainder of the main Swiss index was up by four percent, as was the European Stoxx 600, which comprises Europe’s leading companies, including Roche.
There are two versions of the Roche test, one with number 8800 and the other with 6600. The first is able to test up to 4,128 patients a day, ten times more than a common test, and the second up to 1,440 patients. Saliva and mucus samples from patients are analyzed to determine the results.
Roche said it has distributed over 100 test kits for use in different parts of the United States. The test should also be taken to Europe. The pharmaceutical company said it is taking its “production capacity to the limit” to produce as many of the new rapid tests as possible, according to Bloomberg.
Patient testing is among the greatest challenges for healthcare agents worldwide in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. Many patients have no clear symptoms of the disease and end up infecting others unaware they were infected with the Covid-19. The daily testing capacity is also lower than Roche’s automated tests.
There are 128,392 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the world as of Friday morning, March 13th. Over 40,000 of them are outside China. Europe, home to Roche, is the most affected continent after Asia. Italy alone, where the situation is most severe, has more than 12,000 cases and over 800 deaths from coronavirus.
It is unclear for the time being whether the same test may be extended to Brazil, which has 79 confirmed and over 1,400 suspected cases of coronavirus, according to the latest official counts.
Source: Exame