Fujirebio Europe confirms its engagement in neurodegeneration and updates its market-leading range of immunoassay biomarkers for Alzheimer routine testing
“During the last decade Fujirebio Europe has, under our former name Innogenetics, been on the forefront in the fight against neurodegeneration.”, said Christiaan De Wilde, CEO of Fujirebio Europe. “Our now updated INNOTEST® ELISA microplate panel of biomarkers is the most extensively studied set of biomarkers to date. We continue to invest important time and resources to support the neurodegeneration community and to work for a global standardization of the biomarker use through worldwide consortia.”
The updated versions of the INNOTEST® β-AMYLOID(1-42), INNOTEST® hTAU Ag and INNOTEST® PHOSPHO-TAU(181P) offer ready-to-use calibrators and run validation controls. They allow for an improved ease-of-use, reduced risk of errors and most importantly improved reproducibility. Additionally most of the reagents have been harmonized allowing easier automation of the test procedure. The new product, INNOTEST® β-AMYLOID(1-40) will be made available as an RUO test and offers the same new features as the 3 classical biomarkers. This marker is mostly used as a differentiating tool in the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and further completes the INNOTEST® Alzheimer assay range1.
Please contact us for the commercial availability of these products in your location.
About Alzheimer’s disease (AD)
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a widespread condition that occurs in 50% to 60% of individuals suffering from dementia. Globally, it is one of the most disabling and burdensome of health conditions and its incidence is rising rapidly due to increasing life expectancy. From the age of 65 the incidence of AD doubles every five years (from around 2-3% at age 65 to no less than 35-40% after 85 years of age). This public health care issue translates into millions of people suffering from the condition Worldwide today. The number is estimated to nearly double every 20 years set to reach 65.7 million in 2030, surging to 115.4 million in 20502..
The challenge of early, accurate diagnosis
Alzheimer’s disease starts silently, and develops several years before clinical symptoms appear. Until recently, it has been difficult for physicians to predict which individuals with memory problems will eventually develop AD, and which ones will not. Even when clinical symptoms of dementia are present, the clinical diagnosis of AD is reported to be correct in only 65% to 96% of the time3. Accuracy rates tend to be especially low in the earlier stages of AD. This has led to an ‘accuracy gap’. New diagnostic tools to help detect AD as early as possible, and make early diagnosis with the highest level of certainty are of fundamental importance for both physicians and the families involved. This is because memory complaints can result from several causes and may be reversible. In its early stages, it is especially difficult to discriminate AD from depression, or even normal aging.
Another reason that early detection tools are urgently needed is because the treatment of diseases such as AD ideally should begin as soon as possible. Pharmaceutical companies trying to develop new AD treatments also need reliable tests to establish clear-cut treatment groups and means of monitoring the effectiveness of candidate treatments. CSF markers could be used to stratify patients for tailor-made allotment of therapies.4
About Fujirebio
Fujirebio is a leading international healthcare company with a strong focus on high quality in vitro diagnostics (IVD) testing solutions. Founded more than 60 years ago in Japan, the company is today recognized as the world-wide market leader in oncology for both routine and novel markers and has a strong reputation in Japan in infectious disease testing in hospitals, clinical labs and blood banks. Over the last 20 years Fujirebio has been committed to bringing solid and successful automated immunoassay testing solutions and state of the art chemiluminescent assay products to the market. Under the name Innogenetics (now Fujirebio Europe) the company has also been pioneering the field of molecular diagnostics and multiparameter testing. The company is today one of the world leaders in strip-based diagnostics solutions.
The product lines range from specialized manual testing to fully automated routine testing and they cover disease fields such as infectious, oncology, genetic testing, thyroid, fertility, tissue typing, neurodegeneration and bone.
Fujirebio is a subsidiary of Japan-based Miraca Holdings (listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange - MRCHF) and counts more than 1.100 employees working in Asia, Europe and America, including subsidiaries. For more information about Fujirebio please visit www.fujirebio.com/english or www.fujirebio-europe.com.
References:
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23666174
- World Alzheimer Report 2009
- Dubois et al, Lancet Neurology 2007 ;6 :734-46
- Van Der Vlies, Neurology 2009; 72(12):1056-61
