HILDEN, Germany, & GERMANTOWN, Md.– QIAGEN N.V. (NYSE: QGEN; Frankfurt Prime Standard: QIA) today announced it has completed a U.S. government contract to equip public health laboratories across the country with the QIAcuity digital PCR system to monitor the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic by testing wastewater for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 pathogens.
QIAGEN has shipped more than 35 QIAcuity systems to state and local health laboratories as part of a multi-million-dollar contract with the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) to supply COVID-19 instruments and consumables through the end of 2021.
More than 70% of all U.S. states now have at least one laboratory – either public health or privately-owned – with a QIAcuity system for wastewater surveillance. The ultra-sensitive digital PCR platform has set new standards for delivering rapid results in two hours rather than the six required by competitive systems based on a proprietary nanoplate-based system.
“This contract to QIAGEN has allowed public health laboratories to have rapid access to extraction equipment and supplies that are enabling them to do both surveillance and wastewater testing to support pandemic response,” said Scott J. Becker, M.S., Chief Executive Officer, Association of Public Health Laboratories, in Silver Springs, Maryland. “This accelerated ability has enabled public health laboratories to serve communities across the country. QIAGEN was incredibly responsive to the many needs of APHL member labs and worked tirelessly to support and address public health concerns.”
“QIAcuity is an ideal solution to test for SARS-CoV-2 pathogens in sewage samples, and QIAGEN is ready to support public health labs in the U.S. and around the world to generate important insights to complement epidemiological data,” said Thomas Schweins, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Life Science Business Area at QIAGEN. “We are ready to help public health officials set up and operate processes for this crucial tool to fight the pandemic. Genetic surveillance is proving its value these days – and will prove to be a vital tool in the future. As COVID-19 is becoming endemic, testing needs will increasingly shift from detecting viruses to monitoring the spread of infectious diseases.”
Surveillance testing allows public authorities to collect data from broad sweeps of the population, including people who are not reflected in public-health statistics because they lack access to healthcare. It can potentially reveal dynamic changes in infections – and mutations – earlier than traditional diagnostic testing, providing public-health officials with near-real-time data about the presence and intensity of the disease.
