LEE’S SUMMIT, Mo., [July 29, 2020] – Eurofins U.S. Clinical Diagnostics announced the launch date of its pooled PCR test to detect SARS-CoV-2 and significantly reduce the price per PCR test for clients. Pooling tests, historically used in blood banks, can now be used by the myriad of industries seeking a highly accurate and cost-effective means to conduct COVID-19 testing. Those industries include corporations, sports organizations, educational institutions, congregate care/nursing, and manufacturing.
Along with sentinel assays, pooled testing will be another integral tool in Eurofins’ comprehensive SARS-CoV-2 Safer@Work program. The test will be offered through its network of U.S. laboratories, including Viracor Eurofins beginning mid-August. Pooling can be used to continuously and cost-effectively monitor prescreened, low-risk groups that show a low prevalence of COVID-19 infection. It can also be used as part of surveillance testing for positive individuals in quarantine. Weekly or bi-weekly pooling in combination with other Eurofins’ SARS-CoV-2 antibody, surface, wastewater, air and used mask assays, can help organizations reduce the risk of the current pandemic for significantly less than using regular PCR tests.
In pooled testing, Eurofins will pool five specimens and then test a single PCR assay while retaining the original, individual samples. Results are typically provided within 24-48 hours. If SARS-CoV-2 is detected in the pool, individual PCR tests will be performed to definitively identify the individual sample(s) that were positive. If there is no virus detected in the pool, no further testing is required.
Due to the strong sensitivity of the Eurofins’ RT-PCR assay, pooling represents a highly accurate method with very high sensitivity and excellent specificity.
Eurofins U.S. Clinical Diagnostics division submitted its pooling assay to the FDA for an Emergency Use Authorization on July 24 2020. Eurofins started PCR pooling tests in Germany in early July 2020.
The Eurofins U.S. Clinical Diagnostics network began RT-PCR (real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction) testing for SARS-CoV-2 on March 13. Since then, Eurofins’ laboratories have rolled out highly sensitive and specific molecular assays to thousands of clients nationwide, including hospitals, physicians’ offices, nursing homes, governmental organizations and employers.
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About Eurofins - the global leader in bio-analysis
Eurofins Scientific, through its subsidiaries (hereinafter “Eurofins” or “the Group”), believes it is the global leader in food, environmental, pharmaceutical and cosmetics products testing and in agroscience CRO services. It is also one of the global independent market leaders in certain testing and laboratory services for genomics, discovery pharmacology, forensics, CDMO, advanced material sciences and in the support of clinical studies. In addition, Eurofins is one of the leading global emerging players in esoteric and molecular clinical diagnostic testing. With over 47,000 staff across a network of more than 900 independent companies in over 50 countries generally specialised by end client markets and operating more than 800 laboratories, Eurofins offers a portfolio of over 200,000 analytical methods to evaluate the safety, identity, composition, authenticity, origin, traceability and purity of a wide range of products, as well as providing innovative clinical diagnostic testing services. The Group’s objective is to provide customers with high-quality and innovative services, accurate results on time and, when requested, expert advice by its highly-qualified staff.
Eurofins is committed to pursuing its dynamic growth strategy by expanding both its technology portfolio and its geographic reach. Through R&D and acquisitions, the Group draws on the latest developments in the field of biotechnology and analytical chemistry to offer its clients unique analytical solutions and a very large range of testing methods.
As one of the most innovative and quality-oriented international groups in its industry, Eurofins is ideally positioned to support its clients’ increasingly stringent quality and safety standards and the increasing demands of regulatory authorities and healthcare practitioners around the world.
Shares in Eurofins Scientific are listed on the Euronext Paris Stock Exchange (ISIN FR0000038259, Reuters EUFI.PA, Bloomberg ERF FP).