(RTTNews) - Swiss drug maker Roche (RHHBY) announced Thursday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued an Emergency Use Authorisation or EUA for the Elecsys IL-6 test to help in identifying patients at high risk of severe inflammatory response.
Roche noted that the test can support physicians, in combination with other examinations and vital signs, to decide early on if a patient with confirmed COVID-19 disease requires mechanical ventilation.
This test measures levels of the biomarker interleukin 6 or IL-6, an early indicator for acute inflammation to aid in the management of critically ill patients.
Hospitals and reference laboratories can run the Elecsys IL-6 test on Roche's cobas e analysers which are widely available around the world. These fully-automated systems can provide test results in approximately 18 minutes, with a test throughput of up to 300 tests/hour, depending on the analyser.
Thomas Schinecker, CEO Roche Diagnostics, said, "In the current situation, time is specifically critical. The test could help physicians in the quick identification of severe inflammatory response in patients infected with the SARS CoV-2 virus."
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