ViroCyt, the innovator in rapid virus quantification, and recently acquired by Sartorius, a leading international pharmaceutical and laboratory equipment provider, has announced the addition of another member of its ViroTag portfolio of antibody-based detection reagents: ViroTag EV71.

Enterovirus 71 or EV71 causes epidemics of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) as well as severe neurological diseases in children, primarily in Asia. Recent efforts have resulted in the approval of a vaccine manufactured by Sinovac Biotech Limited using inactivated EV71 virus, and several other vaccine candidates are currently being developed. As is the cause for any virus-based product, the ability to rapidly quantify the virus during the growth, harvest and purification process is crucial for the manufacture and release of consistent supplies of high-quality vaccines.

In response, ViroCyt has created an EV71-specific detection system that-when combined with the Virus Counter 3100 instrument-enables precise quantification of the virus during a one-minute analysis. “Based on significant customer input, ViroCyt identified substantial demand for ViroTag EV71, especially in the emerging markets of China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore,” said Dr. Daniel Galbraith, Chief Scientist with Sartorius Stedim BioOutsource. “An increasing amount of the global vaccine effort is based in these countries, and the ability to provide a biologically-relevant means of accelerating the creation of life-saving vaccines for the severely debilitating diseases caused by the Enterovirus 71 virus is a real-world game-changer.”

Added Dr. Michael Artinger, Vice President of Marketing and Strategic Partnering at ViroCyt, “Sartorius has for a number of years been developing a strategy with both reagents and equipment to support manufacturers of virus as a product. The acquisition of ViroCyt and its unique product portfolio provides them with an important tool to monitor the viral manufacturing process and as such will revolutionize the development of new virus products. Our new kit for Enterovirus 71 is another in a list of innovative products we will bring to market in close consultation with our key customers.”