Test makers target monkeypox market as cases surge

  • 📰 ChannelNewsAsia
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 56 sec. here
  • 2 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 26%
  • Publisher: 66%

Singapore News News

Singapore Singapore Latest News,Singapore Singapore Headlines

LONDON: Diagnostic companies are racing to develop tests for monkeypox, hoping to tap into a new market as governments ramp up efforts to trace the world's first major outbreak of the viral infection

The scramble started last month, much like early 2020 when companies rushed to make kits to help diagnose COVID-19, creating a multibillion-dollar boon for test makers.

A niche new market could soften - but won't make up for - the anticipated slowing of COVID-19 diagnostic sales as the need to test for the SARS-CoV-2 virus ebbs and concern about monkeypox grows, analysts say. This outbreak is significant on the monkeypox scale, but there is not yet a need for hundreds of thousands of tests, which was the case when COVID-19 emerged, said Daniel Bausch, senior director, emerging threats and global health security at FIND, the global alliance for diagnostics.

Kits like Roche's have not been cleared by regulators for use as a medical diagnostic – however, they are available for research purposes only. Broadly there are two types of test: PCR and antigen tests are designed to detect whether a person is currently or very recently infected, while antibody tests show whether a person has previously been infected.PCR tests are the gold standard test for the detection of monkeypox, according to the WHO, while the way antigen and antibody tests are designed makes it less likely that a positive result is definitively indicative of monkeypox.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.

Big Pharma be like:

Surge !

Seems like there are comedians world across.....

We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 6. in SG

Singapore Singapore Latest News, Singapore Singapore Headlines