BURLINGTON, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Laboratory Corporation of America® Holdings (LabCorp®) (NYSE: LH) announces that it will be the first national clinical laboratory to offer HBV PCR testing using a newly FDA approved assay, the Roche COBAS® TaqMan® HBV Test. This assay, to be offered next week, is intended to be used as an aid in managing patients with chronic HBV infection undergoing antiviral therapy. Since the goal of HBV therapy is to treat until circulating virus can no longer be detected it is important that viral DNA monitoring assays provide a high level of sensitivity. The Roche COBAS® TaqMan® HBV Test accurately measures HBV DNA levels as low as 29 international units (IU) per mL, and can detect as positive more than 95% of samples containing as few as 3.5 IU/mL (in plasma) and 3.4 IU/mL (in serum).
