CombiMatrix Corporation (Nasdaq:CBMX), a diversified biotechnology business that develops proprietary technologies, including products and services in the areas of drug development, genetic analysis, molecular diagnostics, nanotechnology and defense and homeland security markets, announced today that the Agency for Health Protection and Promotion in Ontario, Canada has, during the 2007-2008 influenza season, verified the function of CombiMatrix's Influenza-Detection system.
In the study, the CombiMatrix system achieved 95.2% sensitivity and 100% selectivity, and it was stated, "In conclusion the CombiMatrix influenza detection system is an effective method for influenza A subtype analysis. Its ease of operation makes it suitable for laboratories with a limited budget or limited molecular knowledge." The results are published in the Virology Journal ("Verification of the CombiMatrix influenza detection assay for the detection of influenza A subtype during the 2007-2008 influenza season in Toronto, Canada," by Bolotin, Lombos, Yeung, Eshaghi, Blair, and Drews, Virology Journal 2009, 6:37, 25 March 2009) and will be available at this link: http://www.virologyj.com/content/6/1/37
"Canada's Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion is a prestigious, world-class health organization devoted to, among other health areas, epidemiology, prevention and control of disease outbreaks, and surveillance. We are very pleased that they are a customer of our Influenza-Detection system and are especially interested in their evaluation," said Dr. Amit Kumar, President and CEO of CombiMatrix. "We feel that our system is a good match for health agencies wanting to monitor strains of influenza that move in populations. Such a system can help with determining strains to focus upon for vaccine development, can help to spot if non-vaccine strains are starting to propagate, and, importantly, can help to spot if potentially dangerous strains such as H5N1 bird flu are starting to appear. The system's portability and ease of use, allowing new staff to be up to speed quickly in running it, can also provide rapid deployment to locations of need. This system was developed under funding from the U.S. Department of Defense, and has been purchased by military and civilian laboratories for monitoring infectious agents, including bio-threat agents."
Dr. Kumar continued, "The performance of our array technology platforms has been demonstrated in a number of studies, many of which have been published recently. We are looking forward to additional studies, which help drive product development and sales of our products and services. We expect our platform's level of performance to eventually enable the launch of our non-invasive cancer-screening test, which is planned for 2010."