Quest Diagnostics awarded several contracts by CDC

Quest Diagnostics (DGX) announced that it has been awarded several contracts by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, to support testing and sustained laboratory readiness for two emerging infectious diseases recently identified in people in the Americas. The agreements will support the nation’s preparedness for avian influenza and Oropouche viruses by ensuring a national commercial laboratory provider is able to quickly supplement public health laboratories in the event there is an infectious diseases outbreak in people. The contracts also provide funding to enable the company to maintain testing readiness, such as for adequate supplies of certain equipment and chemical reagents used to perform the tests, on a sustained basis. Quest will introduce an immediate response molecular laboratory test to aid in the detection of avian influenza A H5 virus. The new multi-target molecular diagnostic test is intended for use in people suspected of being infected with influenza A H5 virus. The test will be available with a prescription from a provider for clinical purposes at the end of the month.i Quest’s advanced laboratory in San Juan Capistrano, California, developed and will perform the test. CDC has also awarded Quest a contract to develop diagnostics to aid the detection of Oropouche virus, an emerging virus in the Americas that is spread to people by infected biting midges and some mosquito species.