Currently, the detection of antibodies after a person has been infected with the coronavirus is done in the laboratory via a blood analysis. This process will now be greatly simplified and accelerated: GENIUS Pharmaceutical AG (GENIUS Pharma), based in Schaffhausen, is launching GENmonitor, a rapid test for antibody detection.

With this, GENIUS Pharma is building on the previous success of the antigen rapid tests and wants to tie in with the established testing procedure. With the GENmonitor, the determination of neutralising antibodies is to be specifically checked and monitored by trained specialists after vaccination or survived corona infection.

Just ten minutes after the test sample has been taken, the in-vitro diagnostic product shows whether neutralising antibodies are present and thus whether immunity to certain variants of SARS-Cov-2 can be assumed according to the current status. Thus, the test can support healthcare professionals in making recommendations on further vaccination behaviour.

"Developments such as those in Australia or Singapore, where the number of cases is rising again despite good vaccination rates, could be recognised in order to then have a re-immunisation by booster vaccination carried out if the antibody titre is insufficient," says Markus Neumann, medical-scientific advisor and responsible for the quality analysis of partner products at GENIUS Pharmaceutical.

The test was developed by Prima Lab in Ticino and will initially be distributed in Switzerland, Germany and Austria.

As a next step, GENIUS Pharma plans to launch a handy analysis device for quantitative test evaluation at the "point of care".

Did you know the canton of Schaffhausen is one of the strongest pharmaceutical and medtech clusters in Switzerland?

Would you like to learn more about the advantages of Schaffhausen as your business location? Here you can find our 7 reasons for Schaffhausen!