G42 Healthcare and GenScript Biotech Singapore have recently announced their collaboration with the aim of exploring comprehensive solutions to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and mitigate its impact on the community.

As part of the agreement, the GenScript cPass SARS-CoV-2 neutralisation antibody detection kits will be distributed across 24 locations in Abu Dhabi in order to assess the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines.

Reportedly, the kit detects neutralising antibodies in people without using a live SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19.

The traditional method to measure neutralising antibodies in patient samples needs the use of live cells and a high biosafety level environment (BSL3). Significantly, results of this method are derived after several days. However, the cPass kit uses pure proteins and can be carried out in various standard laboratories in less than an hour.

Neutralising antibodies is the first line of defence against the COVID-19 infection which blocks the virus from holding to the host cells, therefore, inhibits viral propagation. In this regard, the cPass test can prove to be a crucial tool to detect the neutralising (virus blocking) antibody response at post-vaccination in order to under the effectiveness, robustness, efficacy, and longevity of the immune response to the vaccine.

Essentially, the cPass kit is the only serology test authorised by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for emergency use for neutralising antibodies from recent and prior SARS-CoV-2 infections. Recently, it received clearance from the UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) to be used as a medical device.

Speaking about the kit, Johnson Wang, Asia-Pacific President of GenScript Biotech, said that the collaboration with G42 Healthcare will help the company in serving the local community with its expertise and resources.

"Our company remains committed to supporting the healthcare community in combating COVID-19 infections, with a broad portfolio of research and development tools and diagnostics, including the novel cPass kit," he added.

Ashish Koshy, G42 Healthcare CEO also noted that the mission behind the collaboration is to provide comprehensive, definitive, and most technologically advanced healthcare solutions in the GCC region. He affirmed that the agreement with GenScript Biotech has come at a time when countries are successfully carrying out national vaccination programmes and laboratories can now benefit from rapid detection of the antibodies.

"Our commitment is to uphold patient health and reinforce our credentials as a transformation enabler in healthcare for the good of all humanity," Ashish Koshy added.

The detection kit provides increased throughput with higher sensitivity and specificity to neutralising antibodies since it is independent of isotype and virus species.