Roche share price up, the FDA approves its Ebola test for emergency use

Roche Holding AG announced that its Ebola test virus got approved by US health regulators and it would be used in emergencies to fight the deadly disease outbreak in West Africa.

The Swiss drugmaker said that the US Food and Drug Administation has authorized the use of its LightMix Ebola Zaire rRT-PCR Test on patients with signs and symptoms of the Ebola Zaire virus.

Roland Diggelman, chief operating officer at Roche’s diagnostics division said the LightMix can generate results in sligthly more than three hours, which would allow “health-care professionals to quickly detect the virus and start patient treatment as early as possible.”

Basel-based Roche said that particular laboratories in the US and other countries have been aproved to use its test for a limited period in order to detect the specific Ebola strain, which is largely spread in West Africa and focused on Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

However, the test, which was made by TIB MOLBIOL GmbH and exclusively distributed by Roche, how not been autorized by the FDA for general use and patients would be treated with it only in emergencies.

According to the World Health Organization, 7 573 people have died to the Ebola virus within the three most heavily affected countries. Around 19 497 confirmed cases were recorded in the year-old outbreak. In the US there were four confirmed cases of the virus, one of them resulted in a person’s death, the organization reported on December 26th.

Roche also announced it will hold a presentation on January 28th, when it will report its full-year results in London.

Roche Holding AG lost 1.17% on December 23rd and closed at CHF 270.10 in Zurich. Today the stock edged up 0.19% to trade at CHF 270.60, marking a one-year increase of 8.59%. The company is valued at CHF 233.08 billion. According to the Financial Times, the 23 analysts offering 12-month price targets for Roche Holding Ltd. have a median target of CHF 304.00, with a high estimate of CHF 360.00 and a low estimate of CHF 257.00. The median estimate represents a 12.55% increase from the last close price of CHF 270.10.