Eurofins expands its global sequencing and mutation-specific PCR capabilities to detect COVID-19 Variants of Concern and of Interest
As the number of types of COVID-19 Variants of Concern and of Interest increases, fast high throughput NGS sequencing is key to identify new variants while mutation specific PCR testing enables immediate detection and contact tracing. Eurofins continues to develop innovative COVID-19 testing solutions and has now reached two important milestones.
Eurofins has sequenced more than 125,000 SARS-CoV-2 samples from 23 countries since our press release on 28th December 2020 announcing the launch of a new ARTIC Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) service. Eurofins’ “ARTIC SARS-CoV-2 Whole Genome Sequencing” service includes NGS and detailed reporting for universal end-to-end surveillance of pandemic development, tracking the emergence and dynamics of existing and new mutational Variants of Concern. It provides customers with a fully assembled sequence of the viral ssRNA genome. This enables accurate lineage and variant identification and surveillance of emerging and spreading Variants of Concern.
Through recent investments, turnaround times for NGS sequencing have been reduced to as little as 5 days and capacity increased to 35,000 viral genomes per week since 15th May 2021. Eurofins intends to further expand its SARS-CoV-2 full genome sequencing capacity as required on all continents.
Eurofins has also reached the milestone of over 24 million COVID-19 PCR tests completed since the start of the pandemic. Accurate, fast and reliable testing is key to the monitoring and containment of SARS-CoV-2. Contrary to rapid antigen testing, which the Group is also offering, Eurofins’ most recent PCR tests enable immediate detection of most current Variants of Concern, which is essential for contact tracing as sequencing takes a few days.
Further information can be found at https://www.eurofinsgenomics.eu/en/covid-19/.
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