QIAGEN N.V. has announced plans to develop a proprietary new version of a QuantiFERON-based tuberculosis (TB) test dedicated and tailored to the needs of low-resource regions with a high disease burden of TB.

The new testing solution, QuantiFERON-TB Access (QFT Access), is designed to pair ultrasensitive digital detection of latent TB infection with a complete workflow created with a focus on cost efficiency and ease of use. QIAGEN is developing QFT Access in a new partnership with Ellume, an Australian developer of high-performance digitally-enabled diagnostics. Clinical trials for QFT Access are planned to start in 2019, and commercialization is expected to begin in 2020.

QFT Access has been designed to advance TB control in areas with limited infrastructure, including countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified a group of 30 countries in these regions as high-burden, representing an estimated 85% of the global TB burden. QIAGEN intends to work with the WHO, various non-governmental organizations and governments to support their TB control efforts, in particular to achieve the goals set for the WHO's End TB Strategy.