Qiagen has entered into an agreement to supply molecular sample and assay technologies for a national PCR-based blood-screening programme for HIV and hepatitis C in Brazil.
Qiagen will provide Bio-Manguinhos, the main provider of vaccines and diagnostics to the Brazilian Ministry of Health, with a significant volume of molecular testing solutions: sample and assay technologies, related instrumentation, operational know-how and training.
Following the approval by the Brazilian patent authorities, the agreement will run for five years and contains options for subsequent extensions.
Brazil's national screening programme is scheduled to start in 2010.
It marks the effort to complement traditional, immunodiagnostic tests with nucleic-acid-based, molecular assays that are considered more sensitive in detecting infection.
They help close the 'diagnostic window' between the time of an infection and laboratory diagnosis by enabling faster treatment and reducing the ability of an infection to spread - thereby further increasing the safety of the blood supply.
Qiagen expects to launch further collaborations on screening programs with governments in emerging countries in the future.
Under the terms of this agreement, Qiagen's extraction and testing components will be included in the screening kits and sold in a format featuring Bio-Manguinhos's name and branding.
The kits will run on a high-throughput multiplex PCR platform, which allows processing of large numbers of samples and detecting multiple pathogens in one single run.
The automated platform - which includes an advanced control system based on biosafe viruses developed and patented by Bio-Manguinhos - has demonstrated good screening results in the field test.
The partnership between Qiagen and Bio-Manguinhos also involves technical advice for implementation of the production of enzymes and buffers in Brazil, but excludes the delivery of primers and probes.
These integral test components, essentially needed to make virus sequences visible, are developed and provided by Bio-Manguinhos.
