French biotechnology company PathoQuest has received CE mark for its iDTECT blood test for clinical identification of pathogens from blood samples.
The iDTECT blood test represents a next generation sequencing (NGS)-based metagenomics approach which has been developed to provide a clinically improved method of detection of bacteria and viruses in blood samples derived from patients suspected with infections or immunocompromised patients.
Hôpital Necker-Enfants Malades infectious and tropical diseases department chair and professor Olivier Lortholary said: “In some clinical situations, especially when a patient is immunocompromised, culture and PCR tests are often unable to provide sufficient information to select the most appropriate targeted anti-infective therapy.
“With the availability of iDTECT Blood, clinicians will be able to expand their experience on the basis of the results already obtained in a proof-of-concept study completed at Necker-Enfants Malades and Européen Georges Pompidou hospitals (Paris, France) on a cohort of over 100 immuno-compromised patients.”
The iDTECT blood test uses PathoQuest’s proprietary methods to prepare blood samples and analyse it by leveraging the latest NGS-based technology to identify genomic sequences of pathogens in patient’s blood.
The genomic sequences, after being identified, are then compared to a comprehensive and curated database developed by PathoQuest which features genomics sequences from over 1,200 bacteria and viruses.
PathoQuest CEO Jean-Francois Brepson said: “CE marking of the iDTECT Blood test is a major milestone for PathoQuest.
“It validates the robustness of our sample-to-BioIT analysis solution, driven by PathoQuest’s proprietary iDTECT database and software.”
