Two diagnostic vendors — Thermo Fisher Scientific and PerkinElmer — have confirmed that their RT-PCR assays are not impacted by Omicron.
Thermo Fisher said its PCR TaqPath COVID-19 Combo Kit and TaqPath COVID-19 CE-IVD RT-PCR Kit detect SARS-CoV-2 infections by identifying the presence of three gene targets from the orf1a/b, S, and N regions of the virus. By surveying across multiple genes, the test can report accurate results even in the case where one of the targets (the S gene target) is impacted by a mutation. As a result, the overall accuracy of the TaqPath COVID-19 assays is not impacted, the company said.
Meanwhile, PerkinElmer said its assays do not target the S gene for SARS-CoV-2 detection and are not affected by these S gene mutations. “In silico assessment against variant databases such as GISAID confirm that none of the mutations associated with Omicron variant impact PerkinElmer’s PCR based diagnostic kits,” PerkinElmer said.
PerkinElmer’s SARS-CoV-2 portfolio includes high throughput RNA extraction and RT-PCR kits for SARS-CoV-2 detection. Additional solutions offered by PerkinElmer include PCR and sequencing workflows for detection of mutations associated with SARS-CoV-2.
