BEAVERTON, Oregon, April 29, 2021 –Sedia Biosciences Corporation today announced the launch of a new service, “Sedia® COVID-19 WGS”, offering whole genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 samples for novel variant detection and surveillance.
Ronald W. Mink, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer said “At Sedia our mission is to bring innovative tools and strategies to market that help bridge the gaps that exist in healthcare access and epidemiological monitoring. Current efforts to monitor and identify novel SARS-CoV-2 variants in the U.S. are lagging behind other countries, hindering our national Public Health response to effectively ramp up rapid diagnostic testing and improve vaccine efficacy. With our subsidiary company, Floragenex Inc., Sedia Biosciences is launching a new service, “Sedia® COVID-19 WGS”, to help close the gap in global monitoring to detect and track virus variants.”
Jason Boone, Ph.D., President of Floragenex, and co-lead of Sedia’s Innovation Hub, said “When Floragenex and Sedia merged in 2016, our goal was to provide innovative molecular and genomic services for organizations at the nexus of scientific research, epidemiologic disease surveillance and rapid diagnostics. By launching services for whole genome sequencing of COVID-19 positive samples to identify and monitor variants, we are realizing this goal.”
Clay Roscoe, M.D., Sedia’s Chief Medical Officer and also co-lead of the Innovation Hub said, “SARS-CoV-2 variants from the UK, South Africa and Brazil have been identified in the U.S., along with several additional variants of interest or concern that have emerged domestically. Many of these variants have been shown to spread more easily and quickly; we do not know how widely they have spread in-country, how the disease caused by these variants differs from other variants currently circulating, or how new variants may affect existing therapies, vaccines, and diagnostic tests. An affordable and accurate genomic surveillance service can assist with the detection and monitoring of novel variants and will be important in our ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic, here in the U.S. and globally.”
The service is intended to provide a Research Use Only tool to enable Public Health monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 variants in the population and is not intended for diagnostic use.
About Sedia Biosciences Corporation
Sedia Biosciences is a privately held medical device and diagnostics company, founded in 2009 and based in Beaverton, Oregon, USA. Our commitment is to become a leader in advancing global access to care through the creation of: (1) state-of-the-art rapid point-of-care diagnostic assays, (2) novel specimen collection devices to enhance remote collection of specimens for follow-up testing. Sedia brings together a dedicated team of scientists and businesspeople that share a common mission: to improve access to medical care around the world by providing innovative and affordable diagnostic, epidemiological and clinical products.
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