Roche announced today the launch of the cobas Plasma Separation Card. This new solution is a stable and easy-to-use sample collection device for HIV plasma viral load testing. By providing a small amount of a patient’s blood from a fingertip, this specially designed card simplifies blood collection and sample transportation.
Traditionally, plasma viral load results required blood samples to be cooled during transport to the lab. The new cobas Plasma Separation Card fundamentally changes the way plasma samples are taken and processed. The card allows for reliable quantitative testing of patients with HIV living in remote areas – even areas of extreme heat and humidity – while meeting WHO requirements for determining HIV viral load prior to setting treatment.
“With the launch of the cobas Plasma Separation Card, we strengthen Roche’s ongoing commitment to providing life-saving diagnostics in the fight against HIV and AIDS,” said Roland Diggelmann, CEO Roche Diagnostics. “This card will improve access and increase HIV diagnostics scaling up efforts to further the critical work of our many healthcare partners in eradicating the HIV/AIDS epidemic.”
“The cobas Plasma Separation Card is a very impressive innovation”, said Alan Staple, Head of Global Markets Team at The Clinton Health Access Initiative. “Coupled with the successful Global Access Program, this will make a significant contribution to extending both the reach and accuracy of HIV viral load testing for underserved populations.”
The cobas Plasma Separation Card will be added to the Roche Global Access Program as a solution to help expand access to diagnostics in countries hardest hit by HIV. In partnership with the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), Unitaid, the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, Roche has been working to increase access to HIV diagnostic solutions to achieve the UNAIDS 90-90-901 goal to improve people knowing their status, getting on HIV therapy, and suppressing the virus from replicating.
The cobas Plasma Separation Card is being launched in countries accepting CE-Mark certification, for use with the COBAS AmpliPrep/COBAS TaqMan HIV-1 and cobas 6800/8800 HIV-1 Tests.
Filed Under: Drug Discovery
