Qiagen to Increase Safety of Blood Donations in Brazil

Qiagen (Frankfurt, Germany) has entered into an agreement to supply molecular sample and assay technologies for a new national, polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based blood screening program for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and Hepatitis C (HCV) in Brazil.

The company will provide Bio-Manguinhos (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), the main provider of vaccines and diagnostics to the Brazilian Ministry of Health, with molecular testing solutions, sample and assay technologies, instrumentation, operational know-how, and training. The agreement will run for five years and contains options for subsequent extensions.

Qiagen's extraction and testing components will be included in the screening kits and sold in a format featuring Bio-Manguinhos's name and branding. The kits will run on a high-throughput multiplex PCR platform, which allows processing of large numbers of samples and detecting multiple pathogens in a single run. The highly automated platform, which includes an advanced control system based on biosafe viruses developed by Bio-Manguinhos, been validated in the field.

Brazil's new national screening program is scheduled to start in 2010. Every year, five million blood donations are performed in Brazil (population--190 million), of which 70% are conducted by public blood banks. Approximately 0.1% and 0.3% of these donations are tested positive for HIV and HCV, respectively, using older, less sensitive serological methods. It is believed that the real percent of positives could be significantly higher.

Peer M. Schatz, CEO of Qiagen said, "We are proud to team up with the Brazilian authorities in a combined effort to significantly reduce the number of blood-borne transmissions of HIV and HCV and the resulting disease burden."

Bio-Manguinhos is one of the official laboratories of the Brazilian Ministry of Health. The unit supports disease prevention policies, epidemiologic programs, sanitation, and surveillance in the immunobiologic area.

Qiagen is a global provider of sample and assay technologies. Sample technologies are used to isolate and process DNA, RNA, and proteins from biologic samples such as blood or tissue. Assay technologies are used to make such isolated biomolecules visible.

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Qiagen
Bio-Manguinhos
Ministry of Health, Brazil