Canadian Blood Services selects Roche Diagnostics Canada as a partner of choice for blood screening in Canada

• Canadian Blood Services will be the first site in North America implementing Roche's Serology and Donor Screening solutions
• Serology testing will use Roche's cobas® 8000 Systems with cobas e801 modules to screen all donations for Anti-HBc II, HBsAg II, Anti-HCV II, HIV Duo, HTLV I/II and Chagas
• This partnership positions Roche Diagnostics Canada as a leader in serology testing for infectious diseases and in donor screening testing in Canada
• This project also augments the existing infectious diseases and microbiology innovation work done at Canadian Blood Services.

LAVAL, QC, Sept. 23, 2021 /CNW Telbec/ - Roche Diagnostics, a division of Hoffmann-La Roche Limited, is proud to announce a new partnership with Canadian Blood Services to support blood screening in Canada. Blood donations will be tested using Roche Blood Safety Solutions where Pre-analytics, Nucleic Acid Testing and Serology Systems will work in synergy. In addition, the use of Roche's cobas e-flow will bring greater efficiency to Canadian Blood Services' workflow.

"We are thrilled by Canadian Blood Services' decision to trust our innovative solutions to ensure high quality testing and continue to provide lifesaving products and services for patients in Canada", said Andrew Plank, President and General Manager at Roche Diagnostics Canada. "We know blood transfusions and plasma-derived therapeutics have the power to save lives every day and choosing Roche as a partner means working with an organization whose state-of-the-art solutions are being successfully used all over the world. This partnership fits perfectly with our purpose: Doing now what patients need next."

Canadian Blood Services tests approximately 820,000 blood donations per year and represents 80% of the blood donated in Canada. Its focus is on life essentials for transfusion and transplantation, including blood, plasma, stem cells, and organs and tissues. 

"This project makes Canadian Blood Services the first blood operator in North America to implement Roche serology assays for donor screening and enhances our ongoing work to innovate in the areas of infectious diseases and microbiology", said Dr. Steven Drews, Associate Director - Microbiology at Canadian Blood Services.

Roche and Canadian Blood Services: A long-standing partnership

Roche and Canadian Blood Services have worked together for over 20 years to bring innovation in blood screening methods. In 2017, the blood operator implemented Roche's cobas® 8800 Systems with pre-analytics that improves staffing efficiency and offers flexibility to meet changing needs and productivity improvement. Canadian Blood Services and Roche are partners committed to best patient safety and best patient care.

In 2021, Canadian Blood Services continues to use Roche assays to generate information on SARS-CoV-2 that informs public health decisions and further innovation work.

Roche Diagnostics Canada partnered with Canadian Blood Services to support a seroprevalence study in Canada, which includes the use of Roche's Elecsys® Anti-SARS-CoV-2-S and Elecsys® Anti-SARS-CoV-2 serology tests, aiming to better understand the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 by comparing the level of antibodies generated by COVID-19 vaccines and natural infection.

About Canadian Blood Services

Canadian Blood Services is a not-for-profit charitable organization. Regulated by Health Canada as a biologics manufacturer and primarily funded by the provincial and territorial ministries of health, Canadian Blood Services operates with a national scope, infrastructure and governance that make it unique within Canadian healthcare. In the domain of blood, plasma, and stem cells, Canadian Blood Services provides products and services to hospitals on behalf of all provincial and territorial governments, except Quebec. The national transplant registry for interprovincial organ sharing and related programs reaches into all provinces and territories, as a biological lifeline for Canadians. For more information visit: blood.ca. 

About Roche Blood Safety Solutions

Roche has been dedicated to blood screening since 1998. The company has a strong heritage in infectious diseases and the assays offered for blood screening exploit innovative technologies specifically developed for serology and nucleic acid testing (NAT) platforms.

Roche is the only provider of a complete state-of-the-art donor screening solution that integrates NATs, serology solutions, and lab automation and software solutions. This integration allows laboratories worldwide to experience the simplicity of leveraging a one-provider solution that increases workflow efficiencies and reduces the risk of manual handling errors, more consistent results, and ultimately more control over the laboratory's process. Roche systems are designed to improve workflow efficiencies, providing modular and automated solutions for labs of all sizes.

About Roche

Roche is a global pioneer in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics focused on advancing science to improve people's lives. The combined strengths of pharmaceuticals and diagnostics, as well as growing capabilities in data-driven medical insights, help Roche deliver truly personalized healthcare. Roche is the world's largest biotech company, with truly differentiated medicines in oncology, immunology, infectious diseases, ophthalmology, and diseases of the central nervous system. Roche is also the world leader in in vitro diagnostics and tissue-based cancer diagnostics, and a frontrunner in diabetes management. Roche Canada was founded in 1931 and employs more than 1,800 people across the country through its Pharmaceuticals division in Mississauga, Ontario as well as its Diagnostics and Diabetes Care divisions in Laval, Quebec.

For more information, please visit www.RocheCanada.com and diagnostics.roche.com or follow us on Twitter @RocheCanada.

SOURCE Roche Diagnostics Canada