To enable clinicians to rapidly test for TB and multidrug resistance as a first-line test, BD Diagnostics, a segment of BD Lifesciences (Becton, Dickinson, and Company), today introduced the BD MAX™ molecular diagnostic system and availability of the BD MAX™ MDR-TB panel in India.
This MAX™ MDR-TB panel is included in WHO guidelines and now clinicians can use the test to simultaneously detect bacteria that cause tuberculosis (TB) and determine if the bacteria contain mutations associated with resistance to two important first-line drugs – Isoniazid (INH) and Rifampicin (RIF) respectively. This molecular test enhances the information available to direct the optimal treatment for patients and rules out the need for a separate test for isoniazid (INH) detection.
“This new molecular test is a big step forward for clinical practice as antimicrobial resistance has made TB identification more complex. With the BD MAX™ MDR-TB panel and BD BACTEC™ MGIT™ products, we are confident that BD can offer laboratories a suite of tools for effective and accurate patient diagnosis and management,” said Vishal Taneja, Business Director, MDS & NT, BD India/South Asia. “Aligned to our purpose of Advancing the world of health, we continue to focus on improving the diagnosis of TB so that we can provide clinicians with the best tools for identifying effective treatments for patients,” he further added.
The BD MAX System is a fully integrated, automated platform that performs nucleic acid extraction and real-time PCR thereby supporting Clinicians in prompt and accurate patient disease diagnoses. The state-of-the-art BD MAX System also empowers laboratories to automate their unique internally developed molecular assays, while accessing a rich and growing menu of world-class assays.
BD has a long history in TB diagnostics having launched the first automated liquid culture system, the BD BACTEC™ MGIT™ system for comprehensive testing for drug susceptibility and resistance. The new BD MAX™ MDR-TB assay complements this technology enabling clinicians to rapidly test for TB and multidrug resistance as a first-line test and then use the BD BACTEC™ MGIT™ system for broader drug susceptibility testing and patient monitoring.
