18 June 2013 - 18 June 2013 - US-based diagnostic technologies developer Laboratory Corporation of America (NYSE:LH), or LabCorp, said on Monday it is now offering Swiss Roche's (VTX:ROG) viral load assay for hepatitis C virus, the COBAS AmpliPrep/COBAS TaqMan HCV Test, v2.0.

LabCorp added that thanks to the latest addition it can now offer physicians a quantitative HCV viral load assay that has a lower limit of detection and quantification (15 IU/mL) than existing qualitative HCV assays (10-50 IU/mL).

The company noted that recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) expanded its HCV screening recommendations from "high risk behavior groups" to include all individuals born between 1945-1965, a birth cohort that CDC estimates to include a majority of HCV infected individuals in the US. As part of this initiative, newly diagnosed individuals are encouraged to seek medical care and treatment for their HCV infection.