Medical Laboratory Services (MLS) − St James Hospital, in collaboration with Vivian, have launched the antibody test from Roche with 100 per cent sensitivity to COVID-19. The first patients have already been tested.

Paul Sultana, owner of Medical Laboratory Services, confirms that this launch was a great milestone which is testament to the commitment MLS has always kept in being at the forefront of science, providing healthcare professionals the best possible diagnostic resources, with patient care being one of its core values.

On the other hand, Reuben Fava, sales and business development manager at Vivian responsible for laboratory equipment and medical devices, says that thanks to the collaboration of his team and that of Roche, this antibody test was made available to Maltese residents in record time and is one of the first in Europe. The test is distributed locally by Vivian.

The Vivian and Roche partnership has been active for over 65 years, operating both in the private market as well as in the public sector, with various key stakeholders to promote and innovate patient-centric healthcare approaches in Malta and Gozo.

Both organisations continue to invest in innovative solutions both at an individual patient level and at a national level to deliver better healthcare and are committed frontliners in the battle against COVID-19.

The test is intended as an aid in the determination of the immune reaction to COVID-19. The Elecsys Anti-SARS-CoV-2 test is an immunoassay for the in vitro qualitative detection of antibodies (including IgG) to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in human serum and plasma.

Elecsys Anti-SARS-CoV-2 has high clinical sensitivity of 100 per cent if tested 14 days after a positive swab.

As determined during assay performance validation by testing a total of 5,272 samples obtained before the COVID-19 pandemic, Elecsys Anti-SARS-CoV-2 exhibits high overall clinical specificity of 99.81 per cent with no cross-reactivity to the common cold coronaviruses.