New AIDS test is said to reduce false positives

Abstract

SmithKline Beckman has developed a new test for AIDS antibodies that it says will reduce or eliminate false positive tests and greatly reduce inconclusive results. According to Harry C. Groome III, president of SmithKline Bio-Science Laboratories (the company's network of clinical testing laboratories), SmithKline will use its new Hivagen test to replace the Western blot assay, the current standard confirmatory test for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Those blood samples tested by the company's laboratories that test positive on the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) will be confirmed using the Hivagen test, he says. SmithKline will neither sell kits nor license its Hivagen test. Instead, Groome says, SmithKline will handle confirmatory test procedures for $80 per test at its facilities in Van Nuys, Calif. With 500,000 confirmatory tests performed last year, and more expected this year, the potential market for Hivagen is at least $40 million. Because the Hivagen test is a clinical testing proc...