Compared to other European countries, the incidence of TB in the United Kingdom has remained high, and the country has a rate four times as high as in the United States, according to NHS England. The majority of these TB cases are the result of “reactivation” of latent TB, an asymptomatic phase of TB that can last for years. Latent TB can be detected using QuantiFERON-TB Gold, an interferon gamma release assay (IGRA) that requires a small blood sample and can provide results within 24 hours. Those who are found to have latent TB are usually treated with antibiotics to prevent active TB disease in the future.

The tender was not awarded to a specific test, but to laboratories performing tests as a service. QIAGEN currently anticipates supplying around 60% of the total annual test volumes in this tender. QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus is the leading modern latent TB test with high market shares around the world – and about 80% market share in Europe.

The NHS tender results showed six QIAGEN customers who offer the QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus test were chosen for various regions across the country which amounted to over 80% of the testing volume. These include QIAGEN customers being designated as two of the three providers chosen for each of the largest regions (London and the West Midlands), with these two regions representing approximately 70% of the total annual national testing volume. Two additional QIAGEN customers were chosen as the sole tender winners in two other regions that together represent 10% of the total annual national test volumes.

A domestic service laboratory company was the only other participant to be awarded portions of the tender with a service based on an own competing IGRA test other than QuantiFERON TB Gold Plus. The tuberculin skin test was excluded from the tender.