FDA Approves First Hepatitis B Viral...( Another Roche first in TaqMan(R) rea...),Health

Another Roche first in TaqMan(R) real-time PCR testing for the diagnostic

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PLEASANTON, Calif., Sept. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the Roche COBAS(R) TaqMan(R) HBV Test, the first assay for quantitating Hepatitis B Virus DNA approved in the U.S. The test uses Roche's real-time PCR technology to quantify the amount of Hepatitis B virus DNA in a patient's blood. Doctors may use viral load testing results to establish a baseline level of infection and during treatment as an aid in assessing individual responses to therapy. Widespread application of antiviral therapy along with the Hepatitis B vaccine has helped reduce prevalence; however, Hepatitis B remains a serious and potentially life threatening global disease, potentially resulting in death from extensive liver damage or liver cancer for chronically infected people.(1)

"Viral load testing with an FDA approved test has long been the standard for managing patients with HIV and Hepatitis C," said Teresa Wright, M.D., Chief Medical Officer at Roche Molecular Diagnostics. "Availability of this new Roche test enables doctors and laboratories to bring that same level of standardized viral load measurement to Hepatitis B treatment."

Because the goal of Hepatitis B therapy is to treat until the virus is undetectable in the patient's blood, it is critical for viral load monitoring tests to be able to quantify very low levels of virus. Similarly, it is important for the test to quantify very high levels of virus (higher than 100 million IU/mL), an indicator of the need for more or less aggressive treatment. The Roche COBAS(R) TaqMan(R) HBV Test can detect the World Health Organization (WHO) HBV International Standard in plasma and serum as low as 3.5 IU/mL and 3.4 IU/mL respectively. The test can measure HBV DNA as high as 1.10E8 IU/mL, representing a significantly broader dynamic range than previously available test
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