ViroCyt®, the innovator in rapid virus quantification, and recently acquired by Sartorius, a leading international pharmaceutical and laboratory equipment provider, announced today the addition of another member of its ViroTag® portfolio of antibody-based detection reagents: ViroTag EV71.

Enterovirus 71 or EV71 causes epidemics of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) as well as severe neurological diseases in children, primarily in Asia. Recent efforts have resulted in the approval of a vaccine manufactured by Sinovac Biotech Limited using inactivated EV71 virus, and several other vaccine candidates are currently being developed. As is the cause for any virus-based product, the ability to rapidly quantify the virus during the growth, harvest and purification process is crucial for the manufacture and release of consistent supplies of high-quality vaccines.

In response, ViroCyt has created an EV71-specific detection system that—when combined with the Virus Counter 3100 instrument—enables precise