Thermo Fisher’s COVID-19 Response Expanded With High-Throughput Automated Testing Solution

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. has introduced a new highly automated, real-time PCR solution designed to analyze up to 6,000 samples in a single day to meet increasing global demand for COVID-19 testing. The high-throughput system enables laboratories to double or even triple their testing capacity to support global efforts to return communities back to work and school.

The Thermo Fisher Scientific Amplitude Solution is a molecular diagnostic testing system that leverages the company's Applied Biosystems QuantStudio 7 Flex Real-time PCR instruments along with liquid handling products from Tecan Group, a global leader in laboratory automation and liquid handling. The modular solution delivers test results in a four-step process requiring minimal hands-on time, laboratory space and staffing resources.

"Increased testing capability is an essential part of any community's plan to reopen schools and businesses," said Marc N. Casper, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Thermo Fisher Scientific. "Current approaches to scale up testing require substantial resources and personnel. This more automated, high-throughput solution will enable laboratories around the world to increase testing volumes and help the public get their test results faster."

The Amplitude Solution utilizes Thermo Fisher's Applied Biosystems TaqPath COVID-19 Combo Kit, a fast, highly sensitive multiplex diagnostic test that contains the assays and controls needed for the qualitative detection of nucleic acid from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The company will submit this new end-to-end solution to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) and plans to secure additional authorizations globally.

The system also includes instruments from Tecan's Fluent Laboratory Workstation family, the highest-performance platform within its extensive portfolio of liquid-handling solutions for laboratory automation. The Fluent instruments will be supplied through Tecan's Partnering Business.

As part of this offering, Amplitude Solution customers will enter into a supply agreement with Thermo Fisher to secure an up-front, confirmed and reliable supply of reagents and consumables. Backed by dedicated, 24/7 customer support from Thermo Fisher, the end-to-end solution, including the reagents, consumables and test kits, is available from a single source.

The launch of the Amplitude Solution adds to the company's significant COVID-19 response. Since developing one of the first diagnostic tests to be granted EUA in the U.S., Thermo Fisher has expanded diagnostic testing to more than 50 countries globally and now has the capacity to produce more than 10 million COVID-19 test reactions per week to meet demand. The company has marshalled its leading scale and depth of capabilities in the fight against COVID-19, from collaborating with laboratory customers and governments to expand testing capacity, to quickly scaling production to meet demand for sample collection products, to supporting more than 200 vaccine and therapy development and manufacturing projects around the world.