The advanced Brazilian Nucleic Acid Test (NAT Plus) platform, leveraging QIAGEN’s PCR reagents, was recently rolled out as part of Brazil’s national blood screening program. Initiated in 2010, this is the largest blood donation safety initiative in the country’s history. Every year, five million blood donations are performed in Brazil, with 70% conducted by public blood banks. This latest advancement improves transfusional safety by detecting malaria and closing the “diagnostic window” between the time of infection and laboratory diagnosis. It is currently operational in 30 laboratories and is critical to safeguarding blood supplies in regions where these diseases are not endemic. QIAGEN and Bio-Manguinhos have been partnering since 2009 to equip Brazil’s national blood screening program with advanced molecular testing solutions.
“QIAGEN’s support has been crucial to achieving our public health goals, especially in enabling malaria and dengue screening,” said Antonio Gomes Pinto Ferreira, IVD Reagents Director of Bio-Manguinhos/Fiocruz. “Their team helped us develop and scale an epidemiological solution that significantly enhances our blood screening capabilities and improves public safety.”
“QIAGEN is committed to working side-by-side with technology partners, like Bio-Manguinhos/Fiocruz, to develop high-impact solutions”, said Salim Essakali, Head of Strategic Partnerships & OEM Division at QIAGEN. “This partnership exemplifies how combining QIAGEN’s biotechnology expertise, life science tools and operational capabilities can improve public health outcomes within Brazil’s national blood screening program”.
The NAT Plus platform supports health surveillance within the blood transfusion system, engaging over 300 trained professionals across 14 hemotherapy centers and processing 3.5 million samples annually. Bio-Manguinhos/Fiocruz’s ZCD-typing kit can now also detect and discriminate samples of zika, chikungunya and dengue, and type the latter, which supports epidemiological surveillance programs in Brazil. Under the terms of this agreement, QIAGEN’s solutions will be included in the screening kits and private labeled under the Bio-Manguinhos’s brand.
Since its inception, QIAGENs Strategic Partnerships & OEM Division has supported over 400 global partners in molecular diagnostics, life science research, infectious disease testing, and oncology with state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities, integrated quality management systems and a comprehensive catalogue of customizable products and services.
