Roche Receives FDA Clearance and CLIA Waiver

Roche announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted 510(k) clearance and CLIA (Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments) waiver for the cobas® Influenza A/B & RSV test for use on the cobas® Liat® System. Roche is the first manufacturer to extend the value of highly accurate CLIA-waived molecular testing beyond flu A/B and strep A to include Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), a cause of more than 80% of acute lower respiratory tract infections in infants under one year of age.

"For young children and the elderly, it is essential to have a differential diagnosis for RSV and flu to ensure appropriate treatment within a short time frame after symptoms strike," said Uwe Oberlaender, Head of Roche Molecular Diagnostics. "This can be challenging with current turnaround times for lab-based test results. The cobas® Influenza A/B & RSV test provides lab-quality PCR results for flu and RSV in about 20 minutes, supporting a prompt, confident diagnosis to patients."

In the US, an average of 58,000 hospitalizations and 2.1 million outpatient visits in children below five years old are attributed to RSV. A significant number is also seen in adults over 65 years with 177,000 hospitalizations and 14,000 deaths per year. A quick detection and discrimination of flu and RSV enables clinicians to optimize patient management and antiviral treatment.

The cobas® Influenza A/B & RSV test is the third assay on the cobas® Liat® System to receive CLIA waiver, following the cobas® Strep A and cobas® Influenza A/B tests, which received CLIA waiver in May and September 2015, respectively. The cobas® Liat® Analyser and all three assays are FDA cleared and CLIA waived.