Becton, Dickinson and Company Announces the Publication of Peer-Reviewed Study That Shows Antigen Test May Be More Selective Than Polymerase Chain Reaction Molecular Tests
January 25, 2021 at 11:59 am
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Becton, Dickinson and Company announced the publication of a peer-reviewed study that shows BD's antigen test may be more selective than PCR (polymerase chain reaction) molecular tests at detecting people who are contagious and able to spread COVID-19 disease. The study compared antigen and PCR test results to positive results using a viral cell culture test. Viral growth in the cell culture test indicates the presence of live virus in the patient sample, which may indicate the presence of infectious virus at the time the sample was taken. If no growth is present in the viral cell culture test, it is likely that there wasn't enough viable virus for the patient to be contagious at the time the sample was taken. Out of 38 positive PCR result specimens tested, only 28 were positive using the cell culture technique. The antigen tests, conducted using the BD Veritor™ Plus System, were positive in 27 of the 28 cell culture positive tests. This data suggests that 10 of the 38 PCR positive results were potentially identifying non-infectious individuals, meaning PCR detected viral RNA fragments or small amounts of intact SARS-CoV-2 virus and that the patient wasn't actually contagious at the time the sample was taken. However, the BD antigen test agreed with all but one cell culture positive test. Diagnosing and isolating contagious people has been the primary goal for testing during the pandemic, followed by contact tracing and testing.
Becton, Dickinson and Company specializes in the development, manufacturing and marketing of medical and diagnostic equipment and materials. Net sales break down by family of products as follows:
- medical equipment (73.5%): surgical instruments, urological care products, pharmaceutical systems, etc.;
- diagnostic materials (18.7%): automated systems for blood testing, mycobacteria detection, and molecular biology, medical biology devices, etc.;
- clinical research and development tools (7.8%): tools for discovering drugs and vaccines, studying genes, culturing cells, and manipulating liquids, instruments for sorting and analyzing cells, monoclonal antibodies, etc.
Net sales are distributed geographically as follows: the United States (57.4%), Europe/Middle East/Africa (21.9%), Asia (15%) and other (5.7%).
Becton, Dickinson and Company Announces the Publication of Peer-Reviewed Study That Shows Antigen Test May Be More Selective Than Polymerase Chain Reaction Molecular Tests