FDA Clears Gen-Probe for Trichomonas Test

San Diego-based Gen-Probe (NASDAQ: [[ticker:GPRO]]) says today the FDA has cleared its nucleic acid amplification test to detect the sexually transmitted infection Trichomonas vaginalis for use in the United States. Gen-Probe says its Aptima assay is the first such test to be approved specifically for Trichomonas vaginalis, which is the most common curable sexually transmitted disease in the United States (with about 7.4 million infections a year). In a statement from the company, Gen-Probe CEO Carl Hull says the assay will be a convenient tool for physicians and laboratories because it employs the same technology as Gen-Probe’s tests for Chlamydia and gonorrhea, can be used with the same patient samples, and runs on the company’s fully automated Tigris system.

Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.