Roche joins forces with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to strengthen laboratory systems in the fight against the HIV and tuberculosis epidemics

• It is critical to strengthen laboratories to enable more people to access quality testing and build stronger, resilient healthcare systems
• Public-private partnerships contribute to strengthening laboratory systems by leveraging the respective strengths, experience, and resources of the partners
• About 2 billion people worldwide are estimated to be infected with tuberculosis and more than 38 million people globally are living with HIV, including over 6 million undiagnosed.

BASEL, Switzerland, Feb. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Roche‌ ‌(SIX:‌ ‌RO,‌ ‌ROG;‌ ‌OTCQX:‌ ‌RHHBY)‌ announced today the expansion of its collaboration with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to strengthen laboratory capabilities in countries greatly affected by the HIV and tuberculosis (TB) epidemics. Through the implementation of a public-private partnership (PPP), named "Lab Networks for Health," Roche and the CDC will seek to improve HIV and tuberculosis prevention, detection, and treatment outcomes in select countries of Africa, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Western Hemisphere (e.g., Latin America, Central America, and Caribbean Regions).

Specifically, Roche and CDC intend to increase laboratory human resource capacity building through expanded training interventions and to support laboratory quality management systems and improvement programs. The partners will also seek to optimise laboratory workflows and integrated diagnostics networks to increase access to multi-pathogen testing capabilities to enhance pandemic preparedness. In addition, they will work to improve local and regional capacity for effective laboratory waste management and related biosafety approaches.

''We are proud to continue our longstanding partnership with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to further support efforts that scale up and expand access to diagnostics for tuberculosis, HIV, and emerging pandemics", said Bernard Colombo, President Europe Middle East, Africa, and Latin America of Roche Diagnostics. ''Investments in strong laboratory networks contribute to the strengthening of health systems that enable people to have access to life-saving testing and treatment for improved disease management and quality of life."

"CDC's global laboratory-supported systems and networks are critical for detecting and monitoring HIV and tuberculosis and have also been vital in the response to COVID-19 and other disease outbreaks," said Dr. Hank Tomlinson, Director of CDC's Division of Global HIV and TB. "Our renewed partnership with Roche Diagnostics will help to sustain these essential platforms, enhance laboratory workforce capacity, and identify efficiencies in multi-disease public health laboratory systems to ensure accurate, reliable, and responsive diagnostic services globally." 

All activities under the PPP will be developed in a manufacturer-agnostic and collaborative manner among representatives from CDC, including country offices, Roche global and regional offices, and host country Ministries of Health, with the goal of creating and improving local and regional institutional capacity for laboratory systems strengthening.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted progress towards reaching the World Health Organization (WHO) HIV and tuberculosis elimination goals and brought challenges to health care systems across countries and communities, putting lives at risk. A recent UNAIDS report highlighted the faltering progress for HIV programs, with approximately 1.5 million new infections occurring in 2021; more than 1 million over the global target.¹ Reversing years of declines, about 10.6 million people worldwide became ill with tuberculosis in 2021, and only 6.4 million of them were diagnosed, according to global reporting.²

About the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
CDC Division of Global HIV and TB (DGHT)
CDC is a global leader in strengthening public health laboratory systems and networks. Through the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), in 2022, CDC supported more than 13,000 laboratories or testing sites in approximately 30 countries, enabling them to identify and prevent the spread of HIV, tuberculosis, and other emerging disease threats .

Providing support and serving as a model for global public health laboratory practice, DGHT's laboratories in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., continuously improve their internal processes and quality management systems and are accredited by the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA) to ISO17025 and ISO17043 standards and by the College of American Pathologists (CAP). In addition, CDC's Viral Load and Early Infant Diagnosis laboratory is a designated WHO Pre-Qualification Evaluation Laboratory to evaluate the performance and operational characteristics of manufacturer's assays and products according to standard evaluation protocols. The TB laboratory also serves as a WHO designated Supranational TB Reference Laboratory, providing quality assurance support and technical assistance to national reference laboratories in the Caribbean Region and Haiti.

In line with PEPFAR and CDC Global TB-supported priorities, CDC laboratories provide an invaluable service to public health laboratories to support prevention, detection, and response efforts for HIV and TB programs globally. Laboratory scientists and other professionals within DGHT's International Laboratory Branch advance policy and strategy development, implementation, evaluation, and improvement across the entire value chain ranging from surveillance and assessment of the current state of the epidemic(s); new diagnostic test development; analytic and clinical evaluation of diagnostics; programmatic introduction and scale up; continuous quality improvement; and laboratory and network optimization for increased efficiency.

About Roche
Founded in 1896 in Basel, Switzerland, as one of the first industrial manufacturers of branded medicines, Roche has grown into the world's largest biotechnology company and the global leader in in-vitro diagnostics. The company pursues scientific excellence to discover and develop medicines and diagnostics for improving and saving the lives of people around the world. We are a pioneer in personalised healthcare and want to further transform how healthcare is delivered to have an even greater impact. To provide the best care for each person we partner with many stakeholders and combine our strengths in Diagnostics and Pharma with data insights from the clinical practice.

In recognising our endeavor to pursue a long-term perspective in all we do, Roche has been named one of the most sustainable companies in the pharmaceuticals industry by the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices for the thirteenth consecutive year. This distinction also reflects our efforts to improve access to healthcare together with local partners in every country we work.

Genentech, in the United States, is a wholly owned member of the Roche Group. Roche is the majority shareholder in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan.

For more information, please visit www.roche.com.

All trademarks used or mentioned in this release are protected by law.

References
[1] UNAIDS. In Danger: UNAIDS Global AIDS Update 2022 [Internet; cited 2023 Feb 28]. Available from: https://www.unaids.org/en/resources/documents/2022/in-danger-global-aids-update
[2] World Health Organization. Global tuberculosis report 2022.

For further information please contact
Xavier Pelletier, Head of Communications, EMEA-LATAM, Roche Diagnostics
e-Mail: xavier.pelletier@roche.com

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