HILDEN, Germany, and PARIS, June 22,
2017 /PRNewswire/ -- QIAGEN N.V. (NASDAQ: QGEN; Frankfurt
Prime Standard: QIA) today announced that France's Ministry of Health and Social Affairs
has approved reimbursement by the national health insurance system
for QIAGEN's QuantiFERON-TB® Gold Plus
(QFT-Plus®) to screen at-risk individuals for latent
tuberculosis infection.
The French decision to reimburse interferon-gamma release assays
for TB screening includes QIAGEN's QFT Plus, the leading IGRA test
worldwide. QuantiFERON is faster, less labor-intensive and more
accurate in screening at-risk populations for latent TB infection
than the century-old tuberculin skin test. Previously,
QuantiFERON-TB tests have been available in France only if purchased by hospitals or
public health centers for health care worker screening or on a
non-reimbursed or private-pay basis. After implementation of the
new reimbursement code, the health system's reimbursement for QFT
will be approximately 45 euros per
test. France joins a growing
number of countries in Europe that
are reimbursing QFT, including Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain,
Switzerland and the UK.
"Adoption of QuantiFERON-TB Gold-Plus by France is a major advance in patient-centered
TB screening. Replacing the inaccurate tuberculin skin test
with the QFT blood test removes the false-positive results skin
tests produce directly due to BCG vaccination, making the QFT-Plus
result more accurate and believable to both the provider and the
patient. This is key for TB elimination efforts in BCG-vaccinating
countries like France, where
replacement of the skin test with QFT-Plus will impact key
decisions on preventive treatment," said Dr. Masae Kawamura, Senior Director, TB Medical and
Scientific Affairs, at QIAGEN.
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SOURCE QIAGEN