UK [Marlborough, MA]; November 7, 2011 – Oxford Immunotec, Inc. announces that the National Acquisition Center of the Department of Veterans Affairs has awarded a Federal Supply Schedule contract (VA797F-12-D-0027) to Oxford Diagnostic Laboratories for T-SPOT.TB testing. This contract will be effective from November 1, 2011 through October 31, 2016.
Oxford Diagnostic Laboratories, a division of Oxford Immunotec, Inc., is the only national TB testing service exclusively dedicated to the T-SPOT.TB test. The laboratory, which is located in Marlborough,Massachusetts, provides TB testing services to hundreds of physicians and healthcare institutions throughout the US.
The T-SPOT.TB test is a blood test, also known as an Interferon Gamma Release Assay (IGRA), used to test for Tuberculosis (TB) infection. The introduction of IGRAs provides healthcare institutions with a key tool in eradicating TB in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommend that IGRAs can be used in all situations where the tuberculin skin test (TST) is currently used.¹ The T-SPOT.TB test received premarket approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in July 2008. The test is backed by the clinical evidence of over 200 peer-reviewed publications, and is the only TB screening test with sensitivity and specificity exceeding 95% in FDA pivotal trials. The T-SPOT.TB test has become widely utilized in hundreds of hospitals, medical practices and public health facilities throughout the United States.
Government facilities depend on simple, accurate screening for their healthcare workers, patients and military personnel for this important transmissible disease. IGRAs, such as the T-SPOT.TB test, address the well-documented limitations of the TST, such as false positive test results, failure of individuals to return for the reading of the test result and poor reliability in individuals with weakened immune systems. The awarding of this contract ensures that all government facilities will now have immediate access to a more accurate and reliable test.
Commenting on the contract award, Dr. Peter Wrighton-Smith, CEO of Oxford Immunotec, said, “The awarding of this contract to Oxford Diagnostic Laboratories for T-SPOT.TB testing services will provide easy access to the T-SPOT.TB test to all government facilities. I am pleased that the National Acquisition Center believes that it is important that their entities have access to the T-SPOT.TB test.”
¹CDC MMWR 2010:59(No.RR-5):1-25.
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About Oxford Immunotec
Oxford Immunotec Ltd., the T cell measurement company, is headquartered near Oxford, UK; its US operations are based inMarlborough, MA. The company develops and sells clinical diagnostic products based on its patented T-SPOT® technology, the first FDA-approved method for directly quantifying antigen-specific T cells.
T-SPOT technology is a simple and extremely accurate method of studying a person’s cellular immune response to infection and could be applied to diagnose and monitor any major disease driven by a T cell response.
About T-SPOT®.TB test
The T-SPOT.TB test is an in vitro T cell measurement assay used for diagnosing TB disease and latent TB infection and is the first product from Oxford Immunotec using T-SPOT technology. The product offers unrivalled sensitivity with results unaffected by a patient’s immune status. The T-SPOT.TB test is approved for sale in Europe, USA, Canada and over 40 other countries worldwide and is designed to replace the 115 year old tuberculin skin test. It offers a substantially more accurate and effective tool for controlling the spread of TB, addressing a market exceeding $1bn.
T-SPOT, Oxford Diagnostic Laboratories and the Oxford Immunotec logo are trademarks of Oxford Immunotec Ltd.
