Genedrive completes first phase of TB field trials in India
EPISTEM has announced that its new Genedrive portable diagnostic machine has successfully completed the first round of a clinical study in India to test for Tuberculosis (TB).
The firm first announced the trial, which is a collaboration with Indian genomics research firm Xcelris Laboratories, at the end of June.
Since then, Genedrive has been used in three clinics alongside traditional methods to assess the potential for its rapid diagnosis of TB.
Epistem said that evaluation of the programme will continue throughout 2011 ahead of a potential commercial launch (and subsequent TB antibiotic resistance test) early next year year.
India has the highest number of TB victims in the world, and around 2m new cases are diagnosed each year. Genedrive will be targeted at identifying early-stage infection, and due to its size can be used in remote locations to identify samples.
Epistem said that the TB trial is one of several clinical programmes currently under way to assess the capability of Genedrive, and that updates on other programmes will be provided over the coming months.
