Drug Disc. and Pharma. Analysis: New Test Available for Faster Results in Diagnosis of Sepsis

The LightCycler SeptiFast test, a new rapid and reliable test for the detection and identification of 25
different sepsis-causing pathogens. The test, which has been developed by Roche Diagnostics, is the world's first PCR-based test of this kind, and can successfully recognise the infectious pathogens
responsible for approximately 90% of all sepsis cases.

Over 23,000 patients in the UK develop severe sepsis each year and with a hospital mortality rate of 45%, for over 10,000 of these people it proves fatal. This equates more than 27 deaths per day. Despite
improvements in its medical management, sepsis still constitutes one of the greatest challenges in intensive care medicine, with up to 26% of patients being given inappropriate treatment.

The LightCycler SeptiFast test has the major advantage of being able to detect and identify both bacterial and fungal sepsis pathogens in less than six hours. This offers a significant improvement over the
traditional blood culture methods which can take up to two to five days and even then there is a positive test rate of less than 20% for patients with sepsis. This is an important time saving for targeted
medical treatment, as only after pathogens are correctly identified can targeted therapy using a specific antibiotic begin.