BD collaboration aims to expedite monkeypox testing

Dawn Furnas//June 8, 2022

On Monday, global cases of the monkeypox virus topped 1,000, urging the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to bump up its alert to level 2 and caution travelers to take extra precautions.

Aiming to stay ahead of the virus, Franklin Lakes medical company BD (Becton, Dickinson and Co.) announced June 8 that it’s collaborating with Spain-based CerTest Biotec to develop a molecular diagnostic test for monkeypox.

The collaboration will allow the BD MAX system — a fully integrated, automated platform that provides test results for up to 24 samples across multiple syndromes in less than three hours — to validate the CerTest Viasure Monkeypox CE/IVD molecular test.

About monkeypox

According to the CDC, monkeypox is a rare disease that can be spread “through contact with the skin lesions or bodily fluids of infected animals or humans (alive or dead), including respiratory droplets, or through contact with materials contaminated with the virus.” Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle aches, swollen lymph nodes and a rash.

“Enabling labs to rapidly respond to unexpected challenges is the kind of evolving health care situations for which the BD MAX open system reagent suite is designed,” Nikos Pavlidis, vice president of molecular diagnostics at BD, said in a statement. “Through our collaboration with CerTest and their ability to rapidly transfer assays on the BD MAX System, we will enable BD MAX System users around the world to access a test for the confirmation of monkeypox.”

The BD MAX system is also used to test for respiratory infections, sexually transmitted infections, gastrointestinal infections, and women’s health diagnostics.