Bosch Healthcare Solutions is currently working on the development of a COVID-19 rapid testing kit for the Vivalytic platform and will launch this in April 2020. The Vivalytic VRI test (Viral Respiratory Tract Infections) checks the patient's sample for the SARS CoV-2 virus, which can lead to COVID-19, as well as nine other possible viral respiratory diseases. To prevent the continued rapid spread of COVID-19, it is necessary to identify infectious patients with and without symptoms. With the Vivalytic VRI test, physicians can quickly and efficiently distinguish between different infections with very similar symptoms, like influenza, and immediately begin the appropriate treatment. The test delivers a reliable result based on WHO guidelines in less than 2.5 hours at the point of care, i.e. in close proximity to where the patient's sample was collected. This means a time-consuming logistics chain, in which the samples have to be transported, is no longer necessary.

"Together with our partner Randox, we have adapted the manual COVID-19 test, which has existed just a few weeks, to the new, fully automated Vivalytic platform from Bosch," said Marc Meier, Managing Director of Bosch Healthcare Solutions GmbH. "Thanks to the extensive expertise of both companies, we have succeeded in developing an innovative test in a very short time, which can contribute to curbing the global spread of the coronavirus."

The Vivalytic platform is so easy to use that it can be handled in any clinic or medical practice without the need for laboratory personnel: The sample is taken from the patient's nose or throat using a swab and placed in the cartridge without any complex preparation. The Vivalytic analyser then fully automatically processes the cartridge, which already contains all the reagents required for the test. Since the system in each cartridge is isolated, the risk of infection during handling is minimized.

Vivalytic is a universal platform for molecular diagnostics that can be used to perform various fully automatic laboratory tests in a short time. The open design of the platform makes it compatible with manual tests from various suppliers. The range of available tests is expected to grow steadily, enabling physicians to initiate successful therapies based on rapid diagnosis.