BGI

Sysmex anticipates delivering the kit to Japanese medical institutions this month for diagnosis of the SARS-CoV-2 infection.

The BGI Real-Time Fluorescent RT-PCR Kit for detecting SARS-2019-nCoV runs in approximately three hours and can be manufactured in large volumes, the firm has said.

The qualitative in vitro nucleic acid amplification assay detects 2019-mCoV using RT-PCR from throat swab and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid samples.

The Shenzhen Mammoth Public Welfare Foundation, which BGI sponsors, has also raised funding to purchase PCR and automate sample preparation instruments.

The new laboratory, which began trial operations this week, is designed to test 10,000 samples per day for the 2019-nCoV coronavirus.

A subsidiary of Curetis, a firm recently merged with OpGen, Ares will use BGI technology to sequence samples in Europe.

The DNBSEQ-T7 ultra-high-throughput sequencer, metagenomic sequencing kit for coronaviruses, and 2019-nCoV RT-qPCR kit have received authorization from China's NMPA.

The clearances pave the way to clinical applications for three of MGI's instruments but the BGI subsidiary faces legal challenges from Illumina in Europe and the US.

MGI Tech will market Pillar Biosciences' Onco/Reveal NGS panels alongside its high-throughput, automated library prep systems outside the US.