(Of course Doctor Who is tomorow night)
It seems that Cellestis have updated the documentation on their website to reflect the release of the International Consensus Guidelines.
You can see them here.
Of particular interest is the new CMV Physician Brochure
It's great to see this evidence of the CST Marketing machine jumping into action. Hopefully an indication of what we will see when the CDC IGRA Guidelines for TB Diagnosis are released.
I believe that there are currently about 70,000 solid organ transplants conducted in the developed world each year. Each of these would require several uses of QFT-CMV both before and after transplant. I am not aware of the price of QFT-CMV but I believe it will be significantly more than the price of QFT-TB Gold.
I am also reliably informed that the acceptance curve of this diagnostic will be quite different than that of QFT-TB. That is, acceptance should be very rapid as transplants are high value operations conducted by surgical teams who work at the "cutting edge" of medicine and are therefore prepared to quickly adopt procedures, practices and products that improve the outcome of their surgery.
And, while I am jotting down random points, I believe that this full commercial release of QuantiFERON-CMV has another benefit for the company. It builds on the brand recognition of the QuantiFERON brand. That is of great benefit in facilitating the acceptance of both current and future QuantiFERON products.
Forrest. I was wondering whether CST will produce sales figures in the future which will itemise sales as either TB or CMV (or for that matter any future new test). The next set of figures should be predominantly TB but it would be good to know what CMV sales are.
ReplyDeleteAlso any ideas on new tests?
I dont want to get too nit picky forrest but it should be QF-CMV, there is no T in CMV
ReplyDeleterog
G'day Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteRe breakdown of sales figures. Of course I don't have the definitive answer to this. However, CST have a good track record of providing Sales ($) breakdown by market so I would imagine that they would, at some point, start providing some sort of product sales break down also.
As to new tests. The company has been very secretive about what the new candidates are (for Commercial reasons). All we know is that they have some very good candidate diagnostics and that one of them is "going through ip (intellectual property)" at the moment. Maybe we will find out at the AGM?
G'day Rog,
ReplyDeletePoint taken.
I have always taken the abbreviation QFT to be an abbreviation for QuantiFERON, not Quantiferon-TB. Hence QFT-TB and my extension of that to QFT-CMV.
I have noticed that the company have tended to ease away from the abbreviation in recent documentation. I have also noticed the occasional usage of the abbreviation QTF.
At the next possible opportunity, I will ask the company which abbreviation (if any) should be used.
Hi Forrest,
ReplyDeleteRog is correct. Based on the Press material the correct abbreviation is QuantiFERON®-CMV (QF-CMV)
http://cellestis.com/IRM/Company/ShowPage.aspx?CPID=1752&EID=77555927
regards,
GT
G'day guppytrader,
ReplyDeleteIt seems that you (and Rog) are correct.
In my defence, in the 2005 Annual report it was referred to as QFT-CMV.
I'll get it sorted at the next available opportunity.
Whilst it may seem a minor issue, it is actually quite important. In these times of the pervasive Google search it is important that those that are looking for information can use a consistent search term.
PS. For basically the same reason you would think that some consistency would be desired i.e. QF-TB, QF-CMV, QF-xxx ??
ReplyDeleteam i right in assuming that QuantiFERON®-CMV is'nt FDA approved yet?
ReplyDeleteG'day Floyd,
ReplyDeleteThat is correct. From the Press Release:
"QuantiFERON-CMV is not US FDA-approved and is available for investigational use only in the US. QF-CMV is not a test for CMV infection."
I'll endeavour to find out what the situation is in more detail.