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Roche has developed a test for the detection of Covid-19 antibodies. It should be ready in about two weeks.
Roche participates in immunity research.
The pharmaceutical company Roche may report another advance in the fight against the spread of the coronavirus. After the company launched the first fully automated rapid test to detect the virus in mid-March, a so-called antibody test will now follow. As Roche announced yesterday, it will be available across Europe in early May. The Group is also working with the FDA to obtain emergency approval for the US market as soon as possible.
Antibody testing is the next important step in fighting the pandemic. Unlike previous Corona tests, it’s not about recognizing infected people so you can be hospitalized at best. Instead, all those people must be identified and have already contracted the virus, and therefore are more likely to be immune to it (see text below: Open questions on immunity).
Immunization grade as an important guide.
The immunization level of the population is an important guideline in determining the correct timing for relaxation of crown measurements. Virologists assume that immunization of 70 percent of the population is sufficient to return to normal social and economic life, including soccer games and concert visits.
Switzerland, of course, is still a long way from such values; The degree of immunization in Germany is currently estimated at a small percentage. However, it will be important in the future, especially with a view to the availability of a vaccine, which will significantly accelerate this process, to know what part of the population is already immune to the virus. And this is only possible with the help of safe blood tests for the detection of Covid-19 antibodies.
Massive capacity increase in June
In the past few weeks, several smaller companies, especially in Asia, have launched antibody tests. However, his problem was always his unreliability. Roche is now the first major pharmaceutical company to develop such a test. Highlight: The infrastructure to carry out the test is already available in many laboratories and hospitals. Like the virus test, it runs on Cobas devices developed by Roche Diagnostics in Rotkreuz. According to the group, around 40,000 of these devices are in use worldwide, for example, the University of Zurich has two.
The procedure is fully automated, reducing the risk of contamination or user error and making the test “very reliable,” Roche said. After the start in May, “production capacity should reach a high of one million digits per month by June,” said Thomas Schinecker, head of Roche’s diagnostic division, yesterday.
Open questions about immunity
In recent days, a report from South Korea has cast doubt on the assumption that people who have survived an infection can no longer become infected with the coronavirus for a specified time. 91 previously ill people were initially negative and then tested positive for the virus again, South Korea’s disease control agency KCDC said. It was not the first time that discrepancies in test results were known. The World Health Organization announced that it would follow up on the cases. He added that it is important to be very careful when taking samples.
Experts had already made this point in previous reports of suspected new infections. Because even if the last certainty is lacking due to lack of studies, it is likely that another harmless phenomenon is the cause of the alleged crisis. Berlin-based virologist Christian Drosten, for example, explained in his NDR podcast that the pathogen might sometimes be detectable just at the end of the disease and not in the middle; there was also a coincidence.
The health agency in South Korea, on the other hand, released the statement that Sars-CoV-2 had been reactivated in patients who had now been discovered. This phenomenon is known to other pathogens. The herpes simplex virus, for example, remains in the body for life, but only occasionally causes the uncomfortable blister. It is not (yet) clear whether this development could also occur with the new coronavirus. (gr)
