Siemens Healthineers announced that it is collaborating with A1 Life Sciences to support global efforts to track variants of SARS-CoV-2.
Siemens will offer A1 Life Sciences' Diagnovital kits that are designed to detect and identify SARS-CoV-2 mutations and variants. The Diagnovital portfolio will be offered for research use only around the world, but will not be offered initially in the U.S.
Siemens said the kits will complement the FTD SARS-CoV-2 assay, which is intended for the initial diagnosis of the infection. If a sample is identified as positive by the FTD assay, then the residual extracted nucleic acid from the original sample can be reflex tested by the appropriate Diagnovital kit or combination of kits to identify if the positive sample harbors a mutation or is a variant.