London - Britain is in talks with Swiss
drugmaker Roche Holding AG on rolling out an accurate
Covid-19 antibody test that it said could be a 'game changer' on
getting the world's fifth-largest economy back to work.
The novel coronavirus, which emerged in China, has propelled
the world towards the sharpest recession in centuries with many
people isolating at home as governments grapple with one of the
biggest health crises since the 1918 influenza epidemic.
The British government said it was talking with Roche on
rolling out its test after a Public Health England laboratory at
Porton Down, in Wiltshire, concluded it had 100% specificity.
That means it can detect antibodies to the exact disease rather
than similar ones.
"This has the potential to be a game changer," said Edward
Argar, Britain's junior health minister.
"We are now moving as fast as we can to discuss with Roche
purchasing of those but I can't give you an exact date when
we'll be able to start rolling them out."
The Roche test received a conformity assessment, known as
Conformité Européenne, or CE mark, from the European Union on
April 28 and received Emergency Use Authorization from the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration on May 2.
Before the Porton Down laboratory's results, the United
Kingdom had said no COVID-19 antibody test was accurate enough
to use.
"This is a very positive development because such a highly
specific anti-body test is a very reliable marker of past
infection," said John Newton, national coordinator of the UK
Coronavirus Testing Programme.
"Scientific experts at PHE Porton Down carried out an
independent evaluation of the new Roche SARS-CoV-2 serology
assay in record time, concluding that it is a highly specific
assay with specificity of 100%."
BLOOD TEST
Roche said late on Wednesday it was in talks with the
National Health Service and the UK government about a phased
roll-out of antibody test kits as soon as possible and would be
able to provide hundreds of thousands of the test kits per week.
"The test requires a blood sample to be taken by a qualified
healthcare professional and processed in a laboratory," Roche
said, adding that it was one of the most accurate tests on the
market with over 99.8 specificity.
"This level of accuracy is vitally important because there
are a number of viruses with very similar antibodies to
Covid-19, including the common cold, and other SARS strains,
which can produce a positive result in some less accurate
antibody tests."
The Telegraph, which first reported the findings, said the
government was in negotiations with Roche to buy millions of
kits.
Similar antibody tests have also been developed by companies
including U.S.-based Abbott Laboratories and Italy’s DiaSorin.
Unlike tests to diagnose diseases, antibody tests show who
has been infected, although it is not yet clear whether that
confers permanent immunity.