Roche has announced that the Global Access Program is expanding beyond HIV, to include Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), Hepatitis B and C (HBV and HCV), and Human Papillomavirus (HPV) for low and middle income country programs where the disease burden is the highest.

“With effective treatment options for these infectious agents and improved patients access to diagnostics, early detection can help save lives and ease suffering,” said Michael Heuer, CEO Roche Diagnostics. “As the leader in infectious disease diagnosis testing, Roche is dedicated to support goals on eradicating diseases globally.”

“Access to cutting-edge, best in class diagnostic test results means more patients being appropriately diagnosed and well treated, resulting in lives saved,” stated David Ripin, Chief Science Officer of the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI). "We welcome Roche’s decision to expand access to tests for hepatitis, tuberculosis, and HPV (the leading cause of cervical cancer) to their Global Access Program, providing health systems with transparent and consistent pricing to these important tests in addition to the HIV viral load and early infant diagnostics already established in the program. CHAI values Roche’s continued partnership in the effort to make diagnostics seamlessly available in well optimized diagnostic lab systems throughout the world."

“Accessible pricing can be the difference between a patient getting a quality diagnosis or not,” said Catharina Boehme, CEO of the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) – a global non-profit devoted to the development and delivery of diagnostics for diseases that include TB and HCV. “FIND is proud to have worked with Roche to expand the Global Access Program for these deadly diseases, leveraging our support for its TB assay.”

In total, the Global Access Program now includes molecular diagnostics for HIV-1 viral load, HIV-1 and HIV-2 early infant diagnosis, the cobasPlasma Separation Card - an innovative plasma collection device, MTB and MTB - RIF/INH, Hepatitis B and C, and Human Papillomavirus. All these assays run on the cobas 4800/6800/8800 platforms for various testing volume needs enabled by the cobas Plasma Separation Card that transports samples from remote areas/sites to the central lab for further processing.

The Global Access Program is expanding beyond HIV, to include Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), Hepatitis B and C (HBV and HCV), and Human Papillomavirus (HPV) for low and middle income country programs