Some blood tests being marketed to tell people if they have had the new coronavirus are a 'disaster', Roche Chief Executive Severin Schwan said on Wednesday as he prepares to launch the drugmaker's own antibody test next month.
ZURICH - Some blood tests being marketed to tell people if they have had the new coronavirus are a “disaster”, Roche Chief Executive Severin Schwan said on Wednesday as he prepares to launch the drugmaker’s own antibody test next month.
Countries around the world hope such blood tests - meant to show whether people exposed to the disease have developed antibodies thought to offer some immunity - will guide efforts to restart their economies and keep healthcare workers safe. Schwan said there were about 100 such tests on offer, including finger-prick assays that offer a quick result. The Basel-based company declined to specify which rival tests it had studied, but said it was not referring to tests from established testing companies.
Schwan did not release figures for its test’s “specificity”, or how many false-positives can be expected, but promised it would be reliable because Roche had successfully found the antibody produced by the body after exposure to the novel virus.
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