Roche Extends Its Line Of Cobas® Clinical Chemistry Analyzers

Main Category: Medical Devices / Diagnostics
Also Included In: Biology / Biochemistry
Article Date: 26 Jul 2008 - 0:00 PST

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Prior to the upcoming AACC congress on July 29-31 in Washington DC, Roche today announced the launch of the cobas c 311 analyzer (excluding US), a new clinical chemistry system for low- to mid-volume laboratories with throughput needs of up to 300 tests per hour. This system will further strengthen Roche's global leadership in the field of clinical chemistry testing.

Compact and reliable, the cobas c 311 analyzer extends Roche's line of cobas® clinical chemistry analyzers into satellite, STAT and smaller hospital laboratories. The system continues the long tradition of innovative system design at Roche. "The cobas c 311 analyzer represents the latest collaboration between Roche and our strategic partner, Hitachi High Technologies," said Dirk Ehlers, Head of Roche Professional Diagnostics. "The system will enable us to offer smaller laboratories many of the efficiencies and conveniences currently provided by the cobas® 6000 analyzer series."

Reliable workhorse with high performance

A comprehensive clinical chemistry menu of more than 100 assays can be run on the cobas c 311 analyzer. Up to 45 assays can be performed simultaneously. Laboratories can expect economical use of reagents as high onboard reagent stabilities and lot-to-lot calibration optimize reagent usage.

All reagents in the ergonomic cobas® c packs are liquid and ready-to-use, and all components of a parameter are integrated into a single cassette. The integration of cobas e-services for electronic updates and downloads makes handling of application, calibrator and control information seamless and precise.

Confidence in the quality of patient results is one of the crucial factors in laboratory medicine. To this end the cobas c 311 analyzer is equipped with a number of features to ensure precise, reliable results. This includes intelligent Clot Detection, carryover-free Ultrasonic Mixing, and test-specific Serum Indices. To help laboratories maximize their investment, these and other analytical components are shared with the cobas® 6000 analyzer series, ensuring comparable patient results across cobas® systems.

The cobas c 311 analyzer complements the cobas e 411 immunoanalyzer, which was released in December 2006. The two systems comprise the cobas® 4000 analyzer series, an efficient Serum Work Area solution designed to process more than 95% of the combined testing needs of low- to mid-volume laboratories.

About Roche

Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is one of the world's leading research-focused healthcare groups in the fields of pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. As the world's biggest biotech company and an innovator of products and services for the early detection, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases, the Group contributes on a broad range of fronts to improving people's health and quality of life. Roche is the world leader in in-vitro diagnostics and drugs for cancer and transplantation, and is a market leader in virology. It is also active in other major therapeutic areas such as autoimmune diseases, inflammatory and metabolic disorders and diseases of the central nervous system. In 2007 sales by the Pharmaceuticals Division totaled 36.8 billion Swiss francs, and the Diagnostics Division posted sales of 9.3 billion francs. Roche has R&D agreements and strategic alliances with numerous partners, including majority ownership interests in Genentech and Chugai, and invested over 8 billion Swiss francs in R&D in 2007. Worldwide, the Group employs about 79,000 people. Additional information is available on the Internet at http://www.roche.com.

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