Abbott claims US market first for fully automated blood screening Hepatitis B test
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
Abbott's first-of-a-kind test that provides a fully automated assay for detection of hepatitis B in donated blood has gained US approval from the FDA. The hepatitis surface antigen (HBsAg) screening and confirmatory test will also be used to screen for the virus in the blood of people donating tissues and organs. It is hoped that the test, which is already in use in Europe, will cut error rates and reduce the manpower required to run high throughput blood-bank testing.