The pharmaceutical company Roche has received emergency approval for a test for the detection of the novel coronavirus (Sars-CoV-2) in the USA.
The US health agency FDA has temporarily approved the test in an emergency determination, Roche Holding AG said. A test system could deliver results of up to 4,128 samples within 24 hours. The Swiss company now wants to push the limits of its capacity to produce as many tests as possible.
Roche receipts significantly stronger than the market according to the Corona test
Roche participation certificates are among the bigger winners at the end of the week. The stocks were also unable to escape the recent sell-off on the stock exchanges and have lost a lot of steam. This Friday, however, the group is in the spotlight with its efforts in the fight against the corona virus.
The Roche participation certificates in Zurich recently gained 3.15 percent to CHF 283.10. It had risen to CHF 307 during the day’s high. Three weeks ago they set a new record at CHF 351.60.
In the morning, the pharmaceutical company received the green light from the FDA for a new type of corona test. Specifically, it is even an emergency approval. The test can now be used wherever the so-called CE marking is accepted – also outside the United States, as Roche announced.
The advantage of this test is that test laboratories and hospitals can use it to test large quantities of samples for the virus in a very short time, in order to then promptly separate the infected patients from the healthy ones.
In addition to the test, there was also a recent recommendation from the Chinese health authorities to use Roches Actemra in China for the treatment of coronavirus patients. This is intended to treat patients with lung damage and an overreaction of the immune system.
To what extent Roche can also score on a business basis is unclear. Speaking to AWP, the head of the Diagnostics division, Thomas Schinecker, said there were no comments on these aspects.
Analysts praised the breakthrough: At Vontobel, analyst Stefan Schneider emphasized that Roche would not only be able to sell more tests, but would also be able to further expand the test options of its Cobas diagnostic systems.
At ZKB, analyst Michael Nawrath aims to use the new test to take quick measures to prevent the virus from spreading further.
FRANKFURT (Dow Jones) / Zurich (awp)
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