Seegene Launches New COVID-19 PCR Test with Reduced Turnaround Time Optimized for Mass Testing

By LabMedica International staff writers
Posted on 20 Jan 2022

Image: Allplex SARS-CoV-2 Fast PCR Assay (Photo courtesy of Seegene, Inc.)

Image: Allplex SARS-CoV-2 Fast PCR Assay (Photo courtesy of Seegene, Inc.)

Seegene, Inc. (Seoul, Korea) has launched the new Allplex SARS-CoV-2 Fast PCR Assay that can deliver PCR results in just 60 minutes.

The assay is expected to reduce the total turnaround time to a third and expand testing capacity up to three times for hospitals and laboratories without additional instruments or compromise on accuracy, according to the company. The Allplex SARS-CoV-2 Fast PCR Assay targets three COVID-19 genes - E, RdRP, and N - to reliably detect COVID-19 regardless of the variants.

Reduction of the turnaround time can be attributed to the application of a novel enzyme developed by Seegene, which reduces PCR process time to half, as well as the company’s innovative extraction-free method that makes the Allplex SARS-CoV-2 Fast PCR Assay be available without the extraction of the sample preparation in PCR-based tests. This drastically reduces the total turnaround time for each result. As such, the new assay lessens the amount of hands-on processing time required, allowing facilities to triple their testing capacity in the same hour.

"This assay will be the optimized choice for laboratories and hospitals where they conduct large-scale testing as it helps them immediately expand the testing capacity with lessening the burden of healthcare workers," said Ho Yi, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer of Seegene. "For the time being, we plan to target large-scale testing markets in more than 60 countries all across the globe. The next step in our journey is to develop a new gold-standard molecular diagnostic assay that fully matches the speed of antigen tests with the same degree of accuracy as PCR test."

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