Press Releases
Asahi Kasei Pharma launching legionella kit Ribotest™ Legionella
January 28, 2019
Asahi Kasei Pharma Corp.
Asahi Kasei Pharma is launching the sale of Ribotest™ Legionella in Japan on February 1, 2019, as a new product in the Ribotest™ series of extracorporeal diagnostic kits. Ribotest™ Legionella assists the diagnosis of Legionnaires’ disease by enabling the detection of all 15 serogroups of Legionella pneumophila.
Developed with Asahi Kasei Pharma’s antibody technology utilizing the L7/L12 protein of the legionella bacterium, Ribotest™ Legionella enables the rapid diagnosis of infection by Legionella pneumophila, the most prevalent cause of Legionnaires’ disease. As this disease tends to progress quickly and lead to a severe condition, early diagnosis and prompt treatment are considered to be critical.
While the currently available rapid diagnostic test kits can only detect serogroup 1 of Legionella pneumophila, Ribotest™ Legionella can detect all 15 serogroups. The new kit is thus expected to make a significant contribution to the rapid diagnosis of Legionnaires’ disease. It will be sold by Alere Medical Co., Ltd. and Kyokuto Pharmaceutical Industrial Co., Ltd.
Overview of Ribotest™ Legionella
- Measurement method
- Immunochromatography1
- Purpose of measurement
- Detection of Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1LPS antigen and legionella pneumophila L7/L12 antigen in urine (aiding diagnosis of Legionnaires’ disease)
- Measurement time
- 15 minutes
- Date of marketing approval
- August 21, 2018
- Manufactured and distributed by
- Asahi Kasei Pharma Corp.
- Distributed by
- Alere Medical Co., Ltd.
Kyokuto Pharmaceutical Industrial Co., Ltd.
- 1An immunoassay method that utilizes an antigen-antibody reaction. It enables simple determination of a positive or negative result by the visual observation of the presence or absence of a colored line, without the need for any special equipment.