EU Launches Project to Improve In-Vitro Diagnostics
- Posted on 16 January 2009
The European Union has launched a research project targeted at expanding the potentials and utility of in-vitro diagnostics.
This is to be achieved through the creation of new standards for the collection, handling and processing of blood, tissue, tumor and other sample materials.
Under the seventh Framework Program, the European Commission approved the initiative’s funding and scope to develop corresponding standards, tools and quality assurance schemes.
The SPIDIA project (Standardisation and improvement of generic Pre-analytical tools and procedures for In-vitro DIAgnostics) is scheduled to run for four years and has a total budget of over $17.27 million.
The consortium, consisting of a total of 16 companies and research institutions from 11 countries, will be led by Qiagen.
The project has been set up to standardize the pre-analytical handling of patient samples used for in-vitro (in glass) diagnosis of human diseases. Such diagnostic procedures are performed in laboratories, hospitals and doctors' practices.
The intention of the project is also to develop standards for the other in-vitro diagnostics steps, ie, the actual analysis. At the end of the four years, a proposal for quality controls and uniform guidelines for the execution of the entire in-vitro diagnostic process is expected to be in place. The network anticipates its first results after two years.
