• Both the companies will come up with holistic solutions for farmers, veterinarians, and the food producing industry.
• The partnership aims to develop a diagnostic test for ASF.

Research-driven pharma conglomerate Boehringer Ingelheim has joined forces with GNA Biosolutions, in a bid to accelerate the development of a rapid ASF (African swine fever) diagnostic test. If reports are to be believed, the test that would be developed via the research partnership between Boehringer and the German molecular technology company will be used in consort with the latters portable molecular diagnostic platform and will aim to support the fight against the spread of this disease worldwide.

Speaking on the partnership, Rolf-Dieter Günther, Global Head, Diagnostics & Monitoring Animal Health, Boehringer Ingelheim, stated that in partnership with GNA, the company aims to come up with holistic solutions for farmers, veterinarians, and the food producing industry as a whole. The targeted platform will be designed to enable quicker decision-making based on the availability of highly comprehensive diagnostic data, Rolf-Dieter Günther further asserted.

For the uninitiated, ASF is a highly fatal swine infection that leads to severe clinical diseases. There is no current treatment for ASF, and no effective vaccines are available either. It has been reported that the massive outbreaks of ASF across Vietnam and China have been negatively impacting pork prices and demand since quite a while. As per a press release by Boehringer Ingelheim, ASF outbreaks led to more than 600,000 pigs culled in China alone, since the last few months.

Lars Ullerich, Managing Director & Co-founder, GNA Biosolutions, stated that this partnership stresses on the role that the company plays in the robustly expanding extra-laboratory diagnostics industry and also extends the application scope of GNA’s Pulse Controlled Amplification technology into animal protection.

As per reliable sources, neither GNA Biosolutions nor Boehringer Ingelheim have revealed any financial information pertaining to the said agreement so far.