- CENTOGENE has recently opened coronavirus walk-in test centers at Frankfurt and Hamburg Airport, two of Germany’s largest airports
- Over 97% of COVID-19 test reports were processed within 24 hours in August 2020 – offering security and peace of mind to travelers
- The combination of electronic workflows with high throughput PCR processes prevents further outbreaks amid concerns of a “second wave” of infections
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and ROSTOCK, Germany and BERLIN, Sept. 01, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Centogene N.V. (Nasdaq: CNTG), a commercial-stage company focused on rare diseases that transforms real-world clinical and genetic data into actionable information for patients, physicians, and pharmaceutical companies, announced today its latest statistics regarding COVID-19 testing at Frankfurt and Hamburg Airports. The figures showed that in the month of August 2020 over 97% of COVID-19 test reports were processed within 24 hours, with more than 60% being processed within 12 hours. The rapid results are a product of the Company’s collaborations, automated systems, and high throughput processes.
The Company believes that combining full digitalization with high throughput PCR processes for rapid turnaround times is the essential standard for fighting this pandemic. To this end, all test results are delivered to patients registered email address, via an electronic report in collaboration with Dr. Bauer Laboratoriums GmbH. The Company’s recent scientific publication ‘Rapid Large-Scale COVID-19 Testing During Shortages’ in Diagnostics (www.mdpi.com/journal/diagnostics), an international peer-reviewed open access journal on medical diagnosis, underlined this successful high-level automation. The results not only reflected the successful implementation of its holistic testing pipeline, but the necessity for rapid and widespread solutions amid COVID-19.
Dr. Volkmar Weckesser, CENTOGENE’s Chief Information Officer, said, “We strongly believe that widespread testing is the key to preventing a further outbreak and supporting a new normal. To truly deliver this in an accurate and timely manner, we have deployed streamlined, digital workflows at two of Germany’s largest airports. Thanks to the latest technology and innovation, we have been able to provide an end-to-end digital process that ensures travelers receive results they can trust in the time that they want.”
A Complete Digitally Powered Testing Solution
Customers can easily register and order CENTOGENE’s SARS-CoV-2 test via their smartphone or computer. The test is a molecular diagnostic test performed for the in vitro qualitative detection of RNA from the SARS-CoV-2 in oropharyngeal samples from presymptomatic probands and probands according to the recommended testing by public health authority guidelines. It has also been validated in CENTOGENE's CAP / CLIA / ISO certified analytical laboratory and has received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use by authorized laboratories. The samples are taken by medically trained personnel using a CentoSwab™, a CE-labelled two-component dry plastic swab for oropharyngeal swab sampling. The samples are then brought to Dr. Bauer Laboratoriums GmbH for testing. Test results are then made electronically available in collaboration with Dr. Bauer Laboratoriums GmbH via CENTOGENE’s SARS-CoV-2 Test Portal – a secure digital platform following stringent data privacy measures in compliance with the current specifications of GDPR (German Data Protection Regulation ‘Datenschutzgrundverordnung’) and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
About CENTOGENE
CENTOGENE engages in diagnosis and research around rare diseases transforming real-world clinical and genetic data into actionable information for patients, physicians, and pharmaceutical companies. Our goal is to bring rationality to treatment decisions and to accelerate the development of new orphan drugs by using our extensive rare disease knowledge, including epidemiological and clinical data, as well as innovative biomarkers. CENTOGENE has developed a global proprietary rare disease platform based on our real-world data repository with approximately 3.0 billion weighted data points from over 530,000 patients representing over 120 different countries as of March 31, 2020.
The Company’s platform includes epidemiologic, phenotypic, and genetic data that reflects a global population, and also a biobank of these patients’ blood samples. CENTOGENE believes this represents the only platform that comprehensively analyzes multi-level data to improve the understanding of rare hereditary diseases, which can aid in the identification of patients and improve our pharmaceutical partners’ ability to bring orphan drugs to the market. As of March 31, 2020, the Company collaborated with 39 pharmaceutical partners covering over 45 different rare diseases.
Important Notice and Disclaimer
This press release contains statements that constitute “forward looking statements” as that term is defined in the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements that express the Company’s opinions, expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, assumptions or projections regarding future events or future results, in contrast with statements that reflect historical facts. Examples include discussion of our strategies, financing plans, growth opportunities and market growth. In some cases, you can identify such forward-looking statements by terminology such as “anticipate,” “intend,” “believe,” “estimate,” “plan,” “seek,” “project” or “expect,” “may,” “will,” “would,” “could” or “should,” the negative of these terms or similar expressions. Forward looking statements are based on management’s current beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to the Company. However, these forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of our performance, and you should not place undue reliance on such statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to many risks, uncertainties and other variable circumstances, such as negative worldwide economic conditions and ongoing instability and volatility in the worldwide financial markets, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business and results of operations, possible changes in current and proposed legislation, regulations and governmental policies, pressures from increasing competition and consolidation in our industry, the expense and uncertainty of regulatory approval, including from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, our reliance on third parties and collaboration partners, including our ability to manage growth and enter into new client relationships, our dependency on the rare disease industry, our ability to manage international expansion, our reliance on key personnel, our reliance on intellectual property protection, fluctuations of our operating results due to the effect of exchange rates or other factors. Such risks and uncertainties may cause the statements to be inaccurate and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such statements. Many of these risks are outside of the Company’s control and could cause its actual results to differ materially from those it thought would occur. The forward-looking statements included in this press release are made only as of the date hereof. The Company does not undertake, and specifically declines, any obligation to update any such statements or to publicly announce the results of any revisions to any such statements to reflect future events or developments, except as required by law.
For further information, please refer to the Risk Factors section in our Annual Report for the year ended December 31, 2019 on Form 20-F filed with the SEC on April 23, 2020 and other current reports and documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). You may obtain these documents by visiting EDGAR on the SEC website at www.sec.gov.