New Coronavirus Test 10 Times Faster Is FDA Approved

[Mr. Sparkle]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by JudyM (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: Bloomberg

U.S. health regulators have approved a new coronavirus test that will speed up by tenfold the ability to test patients, helping solve a significant obstacle to American efforts to contain the virus.

The Food and Drug Administration granted “emergency use authorization” to the test, which runs on Roche Holding AG’s cobas 6800/8800 systems. The 8800 system is capable of testing 4,128 patients a day, and the 6800 version can test as many as 1,440. The tool also is available in Europe and countries that accept its CE marking for medical devices. Roche shares traded 11% higher at 1:29 p.m. in Zurich, the steepest intraday increase since 1997. “We are increasing the speed definitely by a factor of 10,” Thomas Schinecker, head of the Swiss drugmaker’s diagnostics unit, said in an interview.

Testing is crucial to stem the spread of Covid-19 because it allows health care workers to identify the infected and quarantine them, even if they’re not experiencing many symptoms. That can potentially reduce the overall number of infections and buy time for drugmakers to come up with better treatments and, ultimately, a vaccine.

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-13/roche-gets-clearance-for-coronavirus-test-that-s-10-times-faster

[lagomorph777]

1. How many of those machines are available in the US?

https://dialog.roche.com/pk/en_us/products_and_solutions/molecular-lab/cobas-6800-8800-systems.html

[Yonnie3]

2. In the OP's linked article

There are 110 of these tools in the U.S., and Roche has installed a “significant amount” of new ones in key locations in the U.S. in recent weeks, Schinecker said. Roche declined to specify how many of those units are 8800 and how many are 6800 models.

“We definitely extended the capacity of the testing significantly throughout the U.S,” Schinecker said.

The cobas 8800 system can test patients about 10 times faster than Roche’s existing test for the coronavirus, which runs on its MagNA Pure 24 and the LightCycler 480 devices. While those instruments require more human attention, there are more of them in labs and hospitals around the world. They’ll continue to play a crucial role in testing people, especially outside the U.S., Schinecker said.

[beachbumbob]

3. actual first piece of good news, now how long to wait

[EarthFirst]

4. Now start testing...

Or will that contradict the WH narrative...?

[iluvtennis]

5. Very good news. Let the larger scale testing begin. nt

[Bayard]

6. What do the cost?

Put one on every street corner.

[forgotmylogin]

8. If they can make it into a vending machine...

Here's your cotton swab, scrape your mouth, enclose it in the included ziplock, drop in the slot, enter your email for your results tomorrow.

[The Mouth]

7. Good on the FDA

One legitimate criticism of them has been how long it takes to get approval of things, looks like someone got on the ball for once.

[melm00se]

9. I have a doctor in my family as well as a neighbor

both of them say that unless you are symptomatic please please please do not demand to be tested. This will chew into the limited (but growing) supply of test kits or people who really need it.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

10. Well get on with it then

I'm sick of listening to Trump's lame ass excuses.

[JudyM]

11. Locking

No dupes in LBN; this was alerted on.

Please continue discussion in this earlier post: https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142446655