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Publish Date : 03-Dec-2015

QIAGEN N.V. announced today that its QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus test the modern gold standard for latent tuberculosis (TB) detection has been chosen for use in tenders initiated by the National Health System (NHS) in England as part of its national TB control initiatives.

Compared to other European countries, the incidence of TB in the United Kingdom has remained high, and the country has a rate four times as high as in the United States, according to NHS England. The majority of these TB cases are the result of reactivation of latent TB, an asymptomatic phase of TB that can last for years. Latent TB can be detected using QuantiFERON-TB Gold, an interferon gamma release assay (IGRA) that requires a small blood sample and can provide results within 24 hours. Those who are found to have latent TB are usually treated with antibiotics to prevent active TB disease in the future.

The three-year tender results involve approximately 55,000 latent TB tests per year to screen people age 16 to 35 who have recently arrived from countries with high TB incidence rates, and forms part of a strategy announced in January 2015 by NHS England to support TB prevention, treatment and control. The tender was not awarded to a specific test, but to laboratories performing tests as a service.

QIAGEN currently anticipates supplying at least 60-70% of the total annual test volumes in this tender. QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus is the leading modern latent TB test with high market shares around the world and about 80% market share in Europe. The NHS tender results showed six QIAGEN customers who offer the QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus test were chosen for various regions across the country which amounted to over 80% of the testing volume. These include QIAGEN customers being designated as two of the three providers chosen for each of the largest regions (London and the West Midlands), with these two regions representing approximately 70% of the total annual national testing volume. Two additional QIAGEN customers were chosen as the sole tender winners in two other regions that together represent 10% of the total annual national test volumes. A domestic service laboratory company was the only other participant to be awarded portions of the tender with a service based on an own competing IGRA test other than QuantiFERON TB Gold Plus. The tuberculin skin test was excluded from the tender.

TB remains one of the most contagious and prevalent diseases in the world, reaching record levels not only in developing countries, but also in England, said Dr. Masae Kawamura, M.D., QIAGENs Senior Director, Medical and Scientific Affairs. QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus is the industry-leading IGRA that has been chosen in numerous national integrated TB control programs. Together with our partners we are proud to be working closely with public health authorities across England and around the world to stem the tide of rising TB cases.

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