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| Seegene's Allplex SARS-CoV-2 Master Assay / Courtesy of Seegene |
By Baek Byung-yeul
With the global community facing the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, Korean biotechnology company Seegene said Wednesday that its test kit is fully able to detect the new mutation.
"Our Allplex SARS-CoV-2 Master Assay is capable of detecting the Omicron's unique pattern of mutation. The well-established PCR-based test recognizes four SARS-CoV-2 genes and five notable mutations on the spike protein, all in a single test tube," the molecular diagnostics company said.
The test kit is also able to provide accurate results on whether a person has the Omicron variant within four hours, the company said, adding that it is working on providing the test kits to countries so that they can rapidly detect Omicron cases.
"In order to contain the further spread of Omicron, it is extremely important to detect preemptively the Omicron variant at the primary screening stage. To that end, we will fully support countries in need of our test kits to enable more rapid detection of the latest variant," Chun Jong-yoon, founder and CEO of Seegene, said.
On Nov. 24, the first Omicron case was reported to the World Health Organization (WHO), and two days later, the WHO ranked the variant as a variant of concern (VOC) due to its unusually large number of mutations and rapid spread.
The new mutation of the COVID-19 is spreading at a fast pace despite the swift implementation of travel bans. Seegene expects that its test kits will be increasingly used to detect the variants, as "the process for identifying novel variants typically involves next-generation sequencing of the isolated virus, which takes a few days to get a complete result."
"For more rapid detection, Seegene's Allplex SARS-CoV-2 Master Assay can detect the variant in the very first stage of screening. Public health officials can then rapidly isolate and contact-trace people who are infected with this variant of concern," the firm added.
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