Virco Lab Inc announces a US collaboration with SmartGene Inc, a provider of novel services for the management and analysis of genetic data to provide laboratories and physicians with greater insight into HIV drug resistance and to transfer the ordering, viewing and storage of HIV resistance reports to an innovative secure Web-based system.

The agreement allows laboratories and physicians to order, view and store Virco HIV resistance reports through the SmartGene® HIV Web-service module. As a result, data from resistance tests can be stored indefinitely and accessed easily through the Internet. Using the integrated system, laboratories can interpret HIV sequences using multiple algorithms, reinterpret sequences to build cumulative resistance reports for patients and create fully searchable databases for clinical, research and epidemiological purposes. Currently when a clinician orders a resistance test to help guide the selection of a new treatment regimen, previously conducted resistance tests are often unavailable or are difficult to retrieve.

"We believe that our collaboration with SmartGene, Inc. will enable laboratories which use both of our services to provide additional value to HIV clinicians by offering richer information from HIV genetic sequencing," said Werner Verbiest, General Manager Worldwide of Virco BVBA. "The sequence management services provided by SmartGene along with our own virco® TYPE HIV-1 resistance reports allow the laboratory to exquisitely manage genetic information and to electronically order and deliver customized reports to the end user via this synergy in our services."

Key end user benefits of this collaboration are:

  • Genetic sequences obtained from patient viruses can be stored indefinitely on the SmartGene(R) HIV module
  • Sequences can be directly submitted through the secure module to Virco for interpretation and creation of a virco(R)TYPE HIV-1 report
  • Additional genetic targets, such as Integrase and gp41, are also supported by the SmartGene, Inc. service
  • Results are automatically delivered into the module and can be stored and viewed electronically by clinicians at any time
  • Viral sequences can be interpreted by multiple algorithms and interpretation systems and can be re-analyzed when new drugs are introduced or interpretation systems are updated
  • Customized reporting features allow all past HIV sequences for the same patient to be reinterpreted and presented on one cumulative report to enhance clinical practice

Each institution creates its own fully searchable database of sequences, mutations and associated data for use in the clinic, research and epidemiology studies