Bosch's new COVID-19 test delivers reliable results in 39 minutes

Bosch has developed a new rapid test for its Vivalytic analysis device to detect the SARS-CoV-2 pathogen. The test provides a reliable result in 39 minutes and is currently the fastest PCR test worldwide, Report says, citing TASS.

Bosch's new rapid test is predestined for decentralized use in mobile test centers at freeway service stations or airports. People who take the test can obtain a reliable result while at the testing site. Available now in Europe, the CE-approved test helps avoid time in quarantine, relieve laboratories, and make travel and work safer again. "One of the keys to fighting the coronavirus pandemic is to identify sources of infection rapidly. That's why we focused on following up on our first coronavirus test with an even faster one," says Dr. Volkmar Denner, chairman of the board of management of Robert Bosch GmbH.

Funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the singleplex PCR test has a 98 percent sensitivity and a specificity of 100 percent. To develop the test, the Bosch subsidiary Bosch Healthcare Solutions joined forces with the German biotechnology company R-Biopharm. "We have a reliable and sustainable partnership with Bosch. The Vivalytic platform enables us to significantly reduce time to result and to offer our highly sensitive PCR tests directly at the point of sample collection for the first time ", says Jochen Hirsch, CEO of R-Biopharm AG. PCR tests are considered the gold standard of test methods.

Bosch launched the first rapid test for its Vivalytic analysis device at the end of March, after just six weeks' development. As a multiplex test, it simultaneously checks samples for the SARS-CoV-2 virus and nine other respiratory diseases in under two and a half hours. The new, accelerated test is exclusively for SARS-CoV-2.