Dramatic cost reduction of HIV/AIDS patient immune status monitoring Diagnostic support by nearly 4 million patient tests per year
Görlitz, Germany, 19th July 2013 – Today, German biotechnology and diagnostics company Partec, headquartered in Görlitz, announced to have grown its sales revenues in 2012 by 33%. The company located with its „Partec Essential Healthcare“ division in the dynamically developing BioRegion Saxony mainly focuses on dedicated diagnostic solutions in the global fight against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Significant contribution towards stabilizing the AIDS epidemic
The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) specifically targets the CD4+ T-lymphocytes (“CD4 cells”), which are a subgroup of white blood cells (leukocytes) that act as regulators and amplifiers of the immune response. The number of CD4 cells present in a patient’s blood sample, referred to as the “CD4 count”, is an indicator of the state of the immune system. The CyFlow® technology provides accurate CD4 counts, which are required in order to identify when to start and how to maintain an effective antiretroviral treatment of an HIV-infected individual.
The remarkable achievement of improving access to CD4 counts in HIV endemic countries has helped to stabilize the AIDS epidemic, with an overall decline of HIV incidence by more than 20% in the past 10 years (UNAIDS, 2012). Since its inception in 2002, Partec Essential Healthcare division has played a crucial role in improving access to CD4 cell counts, the primary marker for clinical management of HIV worldwide. The vision of the company is to make this essential test more available by providing a complete solution, which is comprised of a robust technological platform based on flow cytometry reference assays, easy-to-perform protocols, and outstanding after-sales service and support.
Costs reduced by 95%
“To make this goal sustainable in the long term, Partec has always firmly believed that the only approach is to reduce the overall CD4 T-cell count costs and to significantly facilitate implementation and use in the field by highly innovative modern, accurate and robust instrument and assay design”, mentions Dr. Francesco Marinucci, Director of Partec Essential Healthcare Division, adding that “Partec reached the target of reducing the cost for the lifelong required follow-up diagnostics by a factor 20 from US-$ 160 per patient and year – as recorded by the World Health Organization WHO in 2002 – to US-$ 8, only. The achievement of improving and widely scaling up accessibility to CD4 T-cell count has been possible by the introduction of the Partec CyFlow® technology since 2002.”
14 million patient tests used from 2008 to 2012
Released in 2002, the CyFlow® CD4 technology is based on stand alone, single-platform designed instruments to perform both the absolute count of CD4 cells as well as the percentage of lymphocytes that are CD4 cells („CD4%“), the latter of which is required for management of pediatric patients infected with HIV. The results are obtained within 40-70 seconds from a single sample, leading to a maximum throughput of up to 250 patient tests per day with one device. The rapid, easy-to-perform Partec blood preparation protocol, which uses tubes of pre-measured dry reagents and buffers, requires only one pipetting step. Currently, nearly 2,000 CyFlow® CD4 instruments are being used successfully in 100 countries around the globe. In the past five years from 2008 to 2012, Partec has supplied reagent kits for a total of 14 million patient tests, among them more than 3.9 million CD4 and CD4% tests only in 2012, thus holding a market share in HIV/AIDS immune status monitoring of approximately 40%.
Market leader in CD4 and CD4% testing
“Compared to the year 2002, in which according to World Health Orginzation only less than 300,000 patients worldwide have been under diagnostically controlled antiretroviral treatment, this result shows the uniquely positive impact Partec could achieve within the past 10 years towards the global fight against HIV/AIDS, leading to a tremendously improved and scaled-up patient support. Besides this, its capability to deliver from one sample run results for both CD4 absolute counts and the CD4% for pediatric HIV/AIDS patients has made the CyFlow® technology the favourable choice for immune status monitoring in any setting”, says Roland Göhde, CEO of Partec. “Its robustness, accuracy, reliability, and cost-effectiveness are the major reasons why the CyFlow® technology is nowadays used to test millions of patients.”
Over 30 international scientific studies and clinical validations from independent research groups and internationally renowned institutions, including Stanford University, Boston Harvard School, CDC, and others, have proven the CyFlow® as a highly accurate, precise and reliable flow cytometric technology for affordable CD4 absolute and CD4% counting.
Partec introducing “lab-to-go solution” CyLab™ mini for true point-of-care HIV/AIDS
immune status monitoring and diagnosis of TB and Malaria Partec now offers a new, innovative and unique "lab to go" for covering the most urgent and critical diagnostic needs in the fight against HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria, especially for those living in remote regions and rural areas with minimal infrastructure: In a portable suitcase, the CyLab™ mini combines the different mobile Partec solutions including the CyFlow® miniPOC, currently the only available dedicated point-of-care testing device also providing results for CD4 percentages among lymphocytes required for HIV-infected children, and the CyScope® fluorescence and transmitted light microscope for TB and Malaria diagnosis. The instruments can be run on battery and solar panel, both part of the CyLab™ mini package.
Source: press release of the Partec GmbH from 7/19/13