Roche Receives FDA Emergency Permission for Ebola Test

By Thomas Mulier

Roche Holding AG (ROG) said it got permission from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for emergency use of a test to detect the type of Ebola that has been spreading in West Africa.
Certain laboratories in the U.S. and other countries have been authorized to test people during a limited period with the LightMix Ebola Zaire rRT-PCR Test, Basel, Switzerland-based Roche said in a statement today. The test, made by TIB Molbiol GmbH and exclusively distributed by Roche, doesn’t have FDA approval.
The LightMix test can generate results in about three hours, Roche said.