A new antibody test which will help to determine whether someone has ever been infected with coronavirus has been confirmed as being 100% accurate, after Public Health England (PHE) said last week that experts at Porton Down carried out an independent evaluation into the test.
The antibody test is designed, developed by Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche Diagnostics, will help determine if a patient has been exposed to the virus that causes Covid-19 and whether they have developed antibodies against it.
Different stages of the #COVID19 pandemic often require different tests. https://t.co/KXwffeywwZ #antibody #PCRtechnology pic.twitter.com/r6ZnHP5Rka
— Roche Diagnostics (@RocheDia) May 13, 2020
Professor John Newton, national co-ordinator of the UK Coronavirus Testing Programme, said “Last week, 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 per cent.”
“This is a very positive development because such a highly specific antibody test is a very reliable marker of past infection.
“This in turn may indicate some immunity to future infection although the extent to which the presence of antibodies indicates immunity remains unclear.”
Earlier this year Boris Johnson said “The great thing about having a test to see whether you’ve had it enough, is suddenly a green light goes on above your head and you can go back to work safe and confident in the knowledge that you are most unlikely to get it again.
Together, we are stronger than #COVID19. With nearly 100 000 people across the world, the reach of our Roche family is global, but our actions are local. Learn about our #partnerships large and small to overcome COVID-19 in local ways https://t.co/v5jwrGaMVR #StrongerTogether pic.twitter.com/PS4kXe4kVD
— Roche (@Roche) May 12, 2020
“So for an economic point of view, from a social point of view, it really could be a game-changer.”
It is understood the UK government is currently in talks with Roche about a large-scale roll-out of coronavirus antibody testing.
