Cepheid's new test delivers results for anthrax, bubonic plague, rabbit fever

By Lisa Kerner

Erie, Pa., March 21 - Cepheid introduced the 3-Agent Biothreat assay for its GeneXpert System, the first molecular diagnostic test to identify B. anthracis (anthrax), Y. pestis (bubonic plague) and F. tularensis (rabbit fever) from a single, unprepared sample.

Positive test results are available in about 70 minutes, according to a company news release.

"The 3-Agent biothreat product is the latest development in Cepheid's planned, comprehensive biothreat detection program," chief executive officer John Bishop said in the release.

"Anthrax has historically been the subject of most headlines, but it is not the only biological threat to public safety."

Cepheid said its GeneXpert is the world's only closed, integrated system to combine sample preparation with real-time polymerase chain reaction amplification and detection, for automated DNA analysis. The system purifies, concentrates, detects and identifies targeted nucleic acid sequences, and provides results from unprocessed samples.

The assays were co-developed by the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, located at Fort Detrick, Md.

Cepheid, based Sunnyvale, Calif., is a molecular diagnostics company that develops, manufactures and markets fully integrated systems for genetic analysis in the clinical, industrial and biothreat markets.

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