Covid - 19: Laboratoire Cerba Detects First Case of Omicron Variant in Mainland France

Laboratoire Cerba, a global leader in specialized clinical pathology and member of the Cerba HealthCare Group, has detected a case of the Omicron variant from the sample of a patient arriving from Nigeria who was tested at Roissy Charles De Gaulle airport. The authorities - Santé Publique France [Public Health France], Agence Régionale de Santé Ile de France [Paris Regional Health Agency] and Direction Générale de Santé [General Directorate for Health]- were immediately informed.

Laboratoire Cerba, chosen last October by the French Health Authorities to participate in the Emergen consortium, carries out between 1,000 and 1,500 sequencings per week with results returned in less than 5 days.

Sylvie Cado, CEO of Laboratoire Cerba explains: "From the beginning of the epidemic, we have been working closely with the Authorities and the National Reference Centres to share the information and the strains of interest in order to support our Authorities in steering public policy: the systematic approach to high-throughput sequencing of the virus has meant that we can build a refined and real-time picture of the epidemiology and viral circulation in our country."

The sequencing of SARS CoV-2 fits into the strategy of the Group, which in 2013 was the first private sector player in France to have a high-throughput sequencing platform.

Laboratoire Cerba has been carrying out high-throughput sequencing of the SARS CoV-2 virus since October 2020 as part of its specialized clinical pathology activity in clinical trials, contributing to various studies looking at vaccines or anti-COVID therapeutic approaches.

About laboratoire Cerba

Laboratoire Cerba, at the origin of the Cerba HealthCare Group and world reference in specialized clinical pathology, performs complex analyses on behalf of other medical laboratories that cannot proceed with their own analyses due to the level of expertise, equipment and certification required. For 50 years, Cerba's medical and scientific teams have been assisting and advising healthcare professionals in the selection of the most relevant analyses and in the interpretation of the results to improve patient care. They are recognized by their peers in human genetics, oncohematology, infectiology, endocrinology and immunology, pharmacotoxicology and metabolic diseases.

With a panel of 1,300 exams covering 40 medical specialties, Cerba serves private and public healthcare institutions in more than 50 countries.

For more information www.lab-cerba.com

About Cerba HealthCare

Cerba HealthCare, a leading player in medical diagnosis, aims to support the evolution of health systems towards more prevention. It draws on more than 50 years of expertise in clinical pathology to better assess the risk of diseases development, detect and diagnose diseases earlier, and optimize the effectiveness of personalized medicine.

Every day, on 5 continents, the Group's 12,000 employees sustain the transformation of medicine, driven by one deep conviction : to advance diagnosis is to advance health.
Cerba HealthCare, enlightening health.

Additional information is available at www.cerbahealthcare.com