(Today's News Briefing) Production Commences! Combo Test Kit for COVID19 and Influenza

2021-09-06

Xinhua News Agency, Shanghai, Sep. 6, 2021 (by Zhou Lin and Sun Qing)
Sep. 6, 2021 A combo kit that tests simultaneously for COVID19 and influenza has officially entered production in Shanghai. Thousands of products from the first batch will be sent to pediatric and fever clinics around the country, thus giving healthcare workers a new and effective tool for the diagnosis of patients with COVID19 and flu symptoms.
The “2019-nCoV and Influenza A/B Nucleic Acid Combo Test Kit (fluorescent PCR)” was approved by the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) on August 16, becoming the first fluorescent qPCR-based COVID19 plus influenza combo kit to be approved in China.　　

According to reports, COVID19 and influenza share similar transmission routes and symptoms. Both are known to spread through contact and droplets, etc., and give rise to symptoms such as fever, sore throat, muscle pain, dry cough, and fatigue. In addition, both result in patchy, ground-glass opacity in lung images, further complicating the differentiation.
Previously, patients showing respiratory tract infection symptoms were required to undergo at least two tests according to routine screening procedures, in order to eventually exclude the possibility of influenza or novel coronavirus. The launch of this new product, which tests for both viruses, is set to optimize the diagnostic process, improve efficiency, and reduce anxiety. Furthermore, the combo kit will lead to significant reduction in medical expenses, cutting expenses by up to 50%, making the process more cost-efficient.

During the initial design of this new 2019-nCoV plus Influenza A/B combo test kit, the emphasis was on overcoming the mutual effects and interferences of the two viruses to ensure high sensitivity and high precision testing which minimizes the occurrences of false positives or false negatives. Founder and chairman of 3DMed Diagnostics, the company behind this combo test kit, Dr. Xiong Lei said “the greatest challenge in combination testing is to overcome anti-interference between multiple pathogenic targets”. “For example, there will only be one type of ‘noise’ when testing specifically for COVID19 or influenza. The challenge for the combo kit is to accurately distinguish between two types of noises in the event that the sample tests positive for both COVID19 and influenza, without the occurrences of false positives or false negatives.”
Data showed that the detection concentrations of coronavirus and different subtypes of influenza for this combo test kit were superior to the requirements for national registration. According to reports, COVID19 kits developed by 3DMed Diagnostics were listed by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2020 for emergency use, and is available in more than 60 countries and regions. Furthermore, 3DMed Diagnostics has explored the needs in different application scenarios and is currently working on other developments, such as test kits which can produce results in 30 minutes, and those that detect mutant strains of novel coronavirus. (End) (Image: Fang Zhe) SHANGHAI, Sept. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Shanghai-based biotechnology company, 3DMed Diagnostics, has donated anti-coronavirus medical appliances worth US$218,000 to Cambodia's Ministry of Health to support its campaign against COVID-19. A handover ceremony was held on Friday September 3 via video in Shanghai with Cambodian officials participating from their home country.

Handover ceremony of Shanghai’s donation of medical supplies to Cambodia to combat COVID-19
The donation will help Cambodia better control COVID-19 with equipment and medical supplies for COVID-19 testing, detection and diagnosis, including ANDiS 3100 Automated Sample Preparation Workstation, ANDiS 350 Automated Nucleic Acid Extraction System, ANDiS 300 Liquid Handling Workstation, Real-time Quantitative PCR Instrument,ANDiS Fast SARS-CoV-2 RT-qPCR Detection Kit, and Nucleic Acid Extraction Kit.
In collaboration with the Institut Pasteur du Cambodge (IPC), a Cambodian non-profit research institution, 3DMed aims to greatly improve the lab’s efficiency in testing and detecting COVID-19 in Cambodia. Compared with the 4–5-hour turnaround time of regular testing methods, the rapid test solutions by 3DMed can produce results in 70 minutes, which is crucial to conducting large-scale nucleic acid screening and testing across Cambodia.The donation also includes testing kits capable of detecting the delta variant and all other variants of interest (VOI) and variants of concern (VOC) identified by WHO, which will enable the health authority to accurately detect and control the spread of COVID variants.
With the recent surge of the delta variant, the Cambodian government is facing a great challenge to control the spread of COVID-19. During the ceremony, Mr. Neang Samrith Komar, consul general of the Kingdom of Cambodia in Shanghai, conveyed his appreciation to China for its brotherly friendship and shared his belief that Cambodia will win this fight against the pandemic.
Caifu Chen, Chief Technology Officer with 3D Med, said that since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, the company has continued to support more than 60 countries and regions in their battle against the pandemic. “We are proud to support the Cambodian people during this most difficult time, and we hope they can overcome the epidemic soon.”

About 3DMed Diagnostics:
Established in Shanghai in 2010,3DMed Diagnostics is one of the first companies to provide oncology precision medical testing services in China. With long-term expertise in this field, 3DMed Diagnostics has become one of the market leaders in precision oncology diagnostics in China since its spin-off from the group company.