On World TB Day 2015 Cepheid and NHLS Commemorate Global Shipment of the 10 Millionth Xpert MTB/RIF Test Cartridge
SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Cepheid (Nasdaq: CPHD) and the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) in South Africa today recognized World TB Day 2015 by commemorating the global shipment of the 10 millionth Xpert MTB/RIF cartridge -- which was received by Helen Joseph Hospital Laboratory in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Xpert MTB/RIF test runs on Cepheid's GeneXpert® System, the world's leading molecular diagnostic platform with over 8,000 systems deployed globally in both developed and emerging market countries.
On World TB Day in 2011, the NHLS announced a national implementation program to place GeneXpert Systems in all laboratories in the nine high-burden districts in South Africa.(1) Since the program began more than 300 GeneXpert instruments have been placed in over 200 sites. The National Health Laboratory Service is the largest diagnostic pathology service in South Africa with the responsibility of supporting the national and provincial health departments in the delivery of healthcare.
"The GeneXpert System adds clinical value to the NHLS as it provides a rapid turnaround time, thus increasing reliability and productivity of our organisation. The testimony to this is seen in the total of 5,353,517 specimens which have been processed from the commencement of our programme in March 2011 through February 2015," said Sebaka Molapo, Project Manager of the National Priority Programmes (NPP). "We are optimistic that GeneXpert technology will help us to achieve the 90- 90-90 target in South Africa set by the National Department of Health (NDoH)."
"Tuberculosis is preventable and curable," said John Bishop, Cepheid's Chairman and CEO. "Every year on March 24(th) the global community commemorates the date in 1882 when Dr. Robert Koch astounded the scientific community with his announcement that he had discovered Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacillus that causes tuberculosis. World TB Day is designed to build public awareness that tuberculosis remains an epidemic in much of the world. I am proud of the work that Cepheid's employees and partners have done to bring attention to the need for increased awareness of TB to the widest possible audience."
Cepheid also announced the release of its RemoteXpert cloud-based monitoring software, which allows authorized agencies to view GeneXpert results in real-time for the purpose of tracking and monitoring emerging infections, including drug-resistant tuberculosis. In a pilot phase conducted from 2011-2014, RemoteXpert collected data from nearly 2.5 million TB cases in 3 countries.
"The detection of TB and drug resistance rates by location, in real-time, represents a major advance in the field of digital disease detection," said Dr. David H. Persing, MD, Ph.D., Cepheid's Chief Medical and Technology Officer. "We showed that Xpert MTB/RIF data collected from hundreds of systems could be nearly instantaneous, inherently objective, and potentially actionable."
Current HBDC customers can now receive RemoteXpert connectivity free of charge if they have a service agreement.
Last October Cepheid, FIND, and Rutgers New Jersey Medical School announced details of a collaboration to develop Xpert® MTB/RIF Ultra, a next-generation test for Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) with increased sensitivity to aid in detection of patients with smear-negative TB, which is often associated with HIV co-infection.
Cepheid is also developing an additional test to specifically call out extensively drug-resistant (XDR) tuberculosis. XDR TB is a form of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB) that is resistant to the most potent TB drugs -- isoniazid, rifampin, aminoglycosides, and any fluoroquinolone.
For more information on Cepheid's entire menu of Xpert tests, visit www.cepheidinternational.com.
About Cepheid
Based in Sunnyvale, Calif., Cepheid (Nasdaq: CPHD) is a leading molecular diagnostics company that is dedicated to improving healthcare by developing, manufacturing, and marketing accurate yet easy-to-use molecular systems and tests. By automating highly complex and time-consuming manual procedures, the company's solutions deliver a better way for institutions of any size to perform sophisticated genetic testing for organisms and genetic-based diseases. Through its strong molecular biology capabilities, the company is focusing on those applications where accurate, rapid, and actionable test results are needed most, such as managing infectious diseases and cancer. For more information, visit www.cepheid.com.
References
1. http://www.nhls.ac.za/?page=genexpert_for_tb_testingid=69
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