Laboratoire CERBA (Saint-Ouen l’Aumône, France) and PATHOQUEST (Paris, France) announced today the signing of a licensing agreement for the iDTECT™ Blood test for use in the precision diagnosis of infectious diseases.

iDTECT™ Blood is a metagenomic test developed by PATHOQUEST that utilizes Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology, developed by PATHOQUEST in combination with pre-analytical methods and a pipeline of BioIT analyses owned by the company. This is the first and only IVD CE Marked metagenomic test for clinical use in the identification of pathogens which are responsible for infections. From a single blood sample, the test can identify more than 1,200 clinically relevant bacteria and viruses with delivery of a results report for use by clinicians and microbiologists within 48 hours. The iDTECT BLOOD test will have increased clinical utility for immunocompromised patients with suspected infections.

The current agreement will enable patient samples for the iDTECT Blood test to be run by Laboratoire CERBA, a member of the CERBA HEALTHCARE group, using their genomics platform in Saint-Ouen L’Aumône. This exclusive licensing agreement covers the countries of France, Belgium and Luxembourg, and also includes a non-exclusive license for use of the test in select countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The agreement also permits PATHOQUEST to introduce the test directly to microbiology laboratories within specific reference hospitals.

According to Jean François Brepson, CEO of PATHOQUEST, “The signing of this partnership agreement with Laboratoire CERBA is an important step for PATHOQUEST relative to the company’s overall business strategy. Not only does it confirm the clinical utility of our test for the clinical diagnosis of infectious diseases, it is also a significant step in our strategy to launch the iDTECT Blood test since CERBA laboratories’ large network enables us to extend access to our innovative test to a larger number of patients who have a genuine need for more reliable option for identifying pathogens responsible for their infections.”

Jérôme Sallette, Innovation Director at Cerba HealthCare stated, “Making innovative and reliable diagnostic methods available to health professionals to provide faster, more effective care to patients is a goal that our group has set. This partnership with PATHOQUEST marks a new stage in the evolving range of diagnostic test we offer for infectious diseases.”