SensNews Feb 2016

Sensor100

February 2016

Roche MDx Sales Grow 7 Percent in 2015

Roche reported a 7 percent increase in molecular diagnostics sales for 2015, driven by

its molecular and sequencing businesses.

Roche’s Diagnostics division had sales of CHF 10.81 billion for the year, approximately

flat compared to last year’s CHF 10.77 billion.At constant exchange rates, diagnostic

sales were up 6 percent, driven primarily by professional diagnostics and in particular

immunodiagnostic products.

The company said it launched seven diagnostic tests and eight instruments in 2015,

including the Cobas 6800 and Cobas 8800 systems for molecular diagnostics, and the

Ventana HE 600 system for tissue diagnostics.

It also acquired four companies in 2015 —Ariosa Diagnostics, Signature Diagnostics,

CAPP Medical, and Kapa Biosystems — that it said will complement its activities to

build a next-generation sequencing portfolio.

Reported by

28 January

Human Life Is a Gas

Researchers at RMIT University in Melbourne,

Australia, have designed and custom-manufac-

tured indigestible capsules that can measure

the concentration of different gases during

digestion in the gut of animals and humans—a

world’s first, they claim.The capsules meet

the standards necessary for such testing, and

after conducting a series of trials on pigs, the

researchers have begun recruiting human

volunteers on which to test the next version

of the pill. An electronic capsule is composed

of: an indigestible cladding; a gas-permeable membrane covering a sensor for detect-

ing hydrogen, methane or carbon dioxide; a microcontroller; a 433-megahertz wireless

transmitter; and four silver oxide batteries.

January 15