CENTOGENE Expands Express COVID-19 Antigen Testing to Frankfurt Airport
Hits:209 Date: 11/26/2020
* CENTOGENE's antigen tests are now available at Frankfurt Airport, following the successful launch of rapid, high-quality COVID-19 antigen tests at Hamburg Airport
* This validated antigen test enables a result within two and a half hours, and further expands on the Company’s well-established range of COVID-19 PCR test solutions already available at four German airports
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and ROSTOCK, Germany and BERLIN, November 26, 2020– Centogene N.V. (Nasdaq: CNTG), a commercial-stage company focused on rare diseases that transforms real-world clinical and genetic data into actionable information for patients, physicians, and pharmaceutical companies, announced today that the company's SARS-CoV-2 antigen tests are now available at CENTOGENE's test center at Frankfurt Airport.
Dr. Volkmar Weckesser, Chief Information Officer at CENTOGENE, said, “Following the successful launch of our validated COVID-19 antigen testing solution at Hamburg Airport earlier this month, we are excited to now be expanding our offering to Frankfurt Airport, one of Germany's largest air traffic hubs. This will provide test center visitors with a time-sensitive COVID-19 testing offer, in addition to our successfully deployed RT-PCR tests. We are committed to the health and safety of our society, and these services will play a fundamental role in helping to minimize further outbreaks.”
The newly offered COVID-19 antigen tests will be followed up by CENTOGENE's PCR tests at no extra cost should a sample initially come back positive. Samples are analyzed in one of the Company’s laboratories, and the test results are available as usual via CENTOGENE's COVID-19 Test Portal.
Dr. Weckesser added, “We are committed to spearheading corona-free travel as part of our COVID-19 test strategy. We are pleased that we can now offer this express test option, which plays an important role in reopening industries, economies, and communities.”
Antigen Test Solution
Under the existing partnership between CENTOGENE and Fujirebio, Fujirebio provides a steady supply of Lumipulse G SARS-CoV-2 Ag assays running on fully automated CLEIA-based LUMIPULSE G1200 instruments. Sample collection is performed by CENTOGENE via the usual oropharyngeal swabs, with the analysis of the samples performed at CENTOGENE test laboratories. The LUMIPULSE G1200 instruments are integrated part of the existing sophisticated automated CENTOGENE workflow that ensures fast and direct delivery of results to customers on their smartphones or digital devices.
The Lumipulse G SARS-CoV-2 Ag assay is used on a LUMIPULSE G system for quantitative measurement of SARS-CoV-2 antigen in human nasopharyngeal swab fluid or saliva. It is used as an aid in the diagnosis of a SARS-CoV-2 infection and utilizes proven CLEIA (chemiluminescent enzyme immunoassay) technology.
About CENTOGENE
CENTOGENE engages in diagnosis and research around rare diseases transforming real-world clinical and genetic data into actionable information for patients, physicians, and pharmaceutical companies. Our goal is to bring rationality to treatment decisions and to accelerate the development of new orphan drugs by using our extensive rare disease knowledge, including epidemiological and clinical data, as well as innovative biomarkers. CENTOGENE has developed a global proprietary rare disease platform based on our real-world data repository with over 3.6 billion weighted data points from approximately 570,000 patients representing over 120 different countries as of August 31, 2020.
The Company’s platform includes epidemiologic, phenotypic, and genetic data that reflects a global population, and also a biobank of these patients’ blood samples. CENTOGENE believes this represents the only platform that comprehensively analyzes multi-level data to improve the understanding of rare hereditary diseases, which can aid in the identification of patients and improve our pharmaceutical partners’ ability to bring orphan drugs to the market. As of August 31, 2020, the Company collaborated with over 40 pharmaceutical partners covering over 45 different rare diseases.