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 Roche's diagnostics business has moved out of the shadow of its main
medicines unit during the pandemic, as the Swiss pharma giant
confirmed its 2020 sales and profit outlook amid rising demand for
COVID-19 testing.
Countries around the world hope such blood tests - meant to show
whether people exposed to the disease have developed antibodies
thought to offer some immunity - will guide efforts to restart their
economies and keep healthcare workers safe.
An erroneous false-positive result could lead to the mistaken
conclusion that someone has immunity. In developing its test, Schwan
said, Roche scrutinised some existing products for reliability
before rejecting them.
"It's a disaster. These tests are not worth anything, or have very
little use," Schwan told reporters on a conference call. "Some of
these companies, I tell you, this is ethically very questionable to
get out with this stuff."
Schwan said there were about 100 such tests on offer, including
finger-prick assays that offer a quick result. The Basel-based
company declined to specify which rival tests it had studied, but
said it was not referring to tests from established testing
companies.
Roche also makes separate tests to determine if a person has an
active coronavirus infection, with a sample taken via a swab from
nasal passages.
Sales of those tests helped push first-quarter sales in its
Molecular Diagnostics business up 29% in the first three months of
the year, it said.
AMATEURS IN GARAGES
By contrast, Roche's planned antibody test relies on intravenous
blood draws taken by a nurse or a doctor.
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Schwan did not release figures for its test's "specificity", or how many
false-positives can be expected, but promised it would be reliable because Roche
had successfully found the antibody produced by the body after exposure to the
novel virus.
"This is really what matters," he said. "Every kind of amateur could produce an
antibody test. The two of us could do it overnight in the garage. That's not the
problem."
"The question is, does it really work? And for that, you have to do testing and
validation," he added.
Abbott Laboratories also said last week it would begin shipping a new
coronavirus blood test similar to Roche's by June. Like Roche's test, Abbott's
assay would be launched under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's recently
relaxed rules for coronavirus tests.
Roche confirmed its existing 2020 forecast for sales to grow in the low-to-mid
single-digit percentage range, with core earnings growth per share matching
that, after first-quarter sales rose 7% to 15.1 billion Swiss francs ($15.57
billion).
While most of Roche's coronavirus activity has been focused on testing, it is
also studying if its older arthritis drug Actemra will help critically ill
patients hit by severe immune system reactions, also called cytokine storms. The
medicine has already been deployed for such cases on a limited basis, including
in China.
(Reporting by John Miller; Editing by Michael Shields and Pravin Char)
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