Procleix testing begins in England
England's National Blood Service has begun nucleic acid testing (NAT) at its Brentwood site with Chiron Pharmaceutical's Procleix HIV-1/HCV Assay. The assay is expected to test about one third of the 2.6m units of blood annually tested in England.
England's National Blood Service has begun nucleic acid testing (NAT) at its Brentwood site with Chiron Pharmaceutical's Procleix HIV-1/HCV Assay. The assay is expected to test about one third of the 2.6m units of blood annually tested in England.
'The start of Procleix testing in England underscores Chiron's commitment to expand its expertise in blood safety to new geographies,' said Jack Goldstein, president, Chiron Blood Testing. 'We are pleased to be able to help the National Blood Service meet its needs and look forward to working with the agency to help ensure the safety of the UK's blood supply.'
'Assuring the security of the blood supply in England is our top priority, and, wherever possible, we try to avoid being dependent on a single system or supplier,' said Richard Bedford, assistant director, National Blood Service. 'Modifying our NAT HCV screening system to include the Chiron Procleix System to test one third of our donated blood represents a significant step forward for us.'
The Procleix System was developed with Gen-Probe to detect the presence of all known HIV-1 groups and subtypes and all known hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotypes in human plasma during the very early stages of infection, when those agents are present but cannot be detected by immunodiagnostic tests. It has been shown that the introduction of NAT testing can close the window period (the time from infection to detection) by as much as 10 days for HIV-1 and by as much as 60 days for HCV.
Amplified nucleic acid testing is a highly sensitive method of detecting infectious organisms in donated blood, thereby improving the safety of the world's blood supply. NAT is used worldwide and is mandated by many European national health authorities to screen blood donations for HIV-1 and HCV.
About Procleix
Procleix Assays and Systems incorporate state-of-the-art NAT technology to detect viral RNA and DNA in donated blood and plasma during the very early stages of infection, when these infectious agents are present but cannot be detected by immunodiagnostic tests. The Procleix HIV-1/HCV Assay, developed in collaboration with Gen-Probe, has been commercially available in Europe since 1999 and also bears the CE Mark. The Procleix HIV-1/HCV Assay is approved for use in the United States, Australia and major markets in Europe. The Procleix Ultrio Assay, which detects HIV-1, HCV and HBV in a single test, will be commercially available in Europe in early 2004.