Dive Brief:
- Cepheid, AstraZeneca, Cubist and GSK have formed the Carbapenem Resistance Consortium.
- The consortium’s goal is to develop a rapid, diagnostic test that identifies multi-drug resistant organisms (MDROs) and determines which treatments will be most effective.
- Multi-drug resistant pathogens have become a serious challenge for infectious disease specialists. In particular, pathogens that are resistant to carbapenem, a very powerful antibiotic, are very difficult to treat.
Dive Insight:
The Carbapenem Resistance Consortium is working to develop rapid testing for various multidrug-resistant pathogens, but the primary focus is carbapenem-resistant organisms (CROs). John Bishop, CEO and Chairman, Cepheid, calls the antibiotic carbapenem “the last line of defense in our medical toolbox.”
Last week, Cepheid released the Xpert Carba-R test, which is an on-demand molecular test that detects CROs. This diagnostic product was released into the European market and is currently under review in the U.S. Commercial release in the U.S. is expected in 2015.