"During this time of increased demand for hospital services, Clinicians urgently need an on-demand diagnostic test for real-time management of patients being evaluated for admission to health-care facilities. An accurate test delivered close to the patient can be transformative — and help alleviate the pressure that the emergence of the 2019-nCoV outbreak has put on healthcare facilities that need to properly allocate their respiratory isolation resources," said Dr. David Persing, MD, Ph.D., Chief Medical and Technology Officer at Cepheid. "By leveraging the design principles of our current Xpert Xpress Flu/RSV cartridge technology, in which multiple regions of the viral genome are targeted to provide rapid detection of current and potential future variants of SARS-CoV-2, we have developed a test that provides reference lab-quality results in multiple settings where actionable treatment information is needed quickly."
"Cepheid currently has nearly 5,000 GeneXpert® Systems in the US capable of point-of-care testing and for use in hospitals," said Cepheid President Warren Kocmond. "Our automated systems do not require users to have specialty training to perform testing — they are capable of running 24/7, with many systems already doing so today."
The test will begin shipping next week. For more information about Cepheid's Xpert Xpress SARS-CoV-2 test, please visit www.cepheid.com/coronavirus.