Activists yesterday (THURSDAY) handed over a letter to Cepheid, the company which manufactures the Gene Xpert, at the 41st Union Conference on Lung Health in Berlin, Germany, calling for the price of the U$30 000 machine to be reduced.

The Gene Xpert is able to detect active TB and rifampicin (one of the main TB drugs) resistance within 90 minutes. The current test, which involves culturing the bacteria in the sputum at a laboratory, takes up to six weeks and in this time the patient is not receiving any treatment. The patient’€™s sputum sample is gathered in a bottle, a buffer fluid is added, the sample is transferred to a cartridge which is placed in the machine. The operator pushes a button and a result is gained 90 minutes later.

Ironically, the news of the Gene Xpert comes 100 years after the death of one of Berlin’€™s most famous sons, Robert Koch who first identified the TB bacteria using a microscope as well as the method of growing it in pure culture ‘€“ the mainstay method of TB diagnosis in the world.

Dr Mark Perkins, Chief Scientific Officer of FIND, which collaborated with Cepheid, said the Gene Xpert was a ‘€œrevolution in diagnostics for TB’€.

He urged activists ‘€œwho protested for antiretrovirals to do to the same for TB’€ adding that it was critical to find ways to make a TB test as easy as a pregnancy test.

Perkins agreed that the technology had to be made less expensive adding that they were negotiating with Cepheid in the hope that the price could be reduced as volumes increased and that ‘€œgeneric’€ diagnostics could be developed at a much lower cost.

According to activists the current price at which Cepheid is intending to sell the Gene Xpert is in the region of U$20 000 to U$30 000, a small version of the machine which can take four non-reusable cartridges at a time. Each cartridge will sell for between U$20 and U$30.

Professor Anthony Harries, world renowned TB expert and Senior Advisor at The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease said the development of the Gene Xpert was the first real advance of TB in 20 years. ‘€œA real milestone,’€ he said.

He said he believed the machine, which currently needs an electricity supply, could be made simpler and cheaper adding that he hoped manufacturers would step up to the plate and do their bit for social good rather than commercial good.

The letter contained the signatures of among others the Treatment Action Campaign, the Treatment Action Group, the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society, SECTION27 (incorporating the AIDS Law Project) and the European AIDS Treatment Group.

* Health-e is reporting from The Union conference in Berlin thanks to support from the National Press Foundation and The Union.