Product News: Bio-Rad launches SARS CoV-2 Standard for COVID-19 testing

The Standard is said to contain synthetic COVID-19 RNA transcripts and human genomic DNA

20 Mar 2020

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., a global leader of life science research and clinical diagnostic products, has announced that through its Exact Diagnostics product line, it has launched a SARS CoV-2 Standard to support laboratory assay validation of coronavirus (COVID-19) testing. Bio-Rad is providing the SARS CoV-2 Standard to help labs validate their COVID-19 assay results and accelerate access to testing.

The Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) federal regulatory standards require clinical laboratories to establish and document their own performance specifications for laboratory-developed tests to ensure accurate and precise results prior to the implementation of the test. The SARS CoV-2 Standard contains synthetic COVID-19 RNA transcripts and human genomic DNA, allowing laboratories to test the entire process of a molecular assay including extraction, amplification, and detection of the virus.

"In a public health emergency, it is critical that labs have access to well-defined standards to help with the validation of their tests," said Dara Wright, Bio-Rad Executive Vice President, President, Clinical Diagnostics Group. "The SARS CoV-2 Standard helps to validate COVID-19 tests, which enables more laboratories to meet the growing demand for identification of this coronavirus."

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