2 April 2009: NorDiag ASA has successfully completed a clinical trial at Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary, Dumfries, Scotland, for its automated sample preparation solution for swab samples tailored for use with the Roche COBAS® TaqMan® 48 Analyzer and COBAS® TaqMan® CT Test, v2.0.

NorDiag has fully automated the process from the primary swab samples to the PCR in Roche K-carrier tubes. NorDiag's "Bullet" instrument has the capacity to process up to 100 000 isolations per year.

The trial compared NorDiag's automated sample preparation solution for sexually transmitted infections with AMPLICOR® CT/NG Specimen Preparation Kit and Tecan Freedom EVO 75 instrument for semi-automated sample preparation. The tests were run on the Roche COBAS® TaqMan® 48 Analyzer and used the COBAS® TaqMan® CT Test, v2.0. The overall results show that NorDiag's method yields a higher sensitivity and reduced inhibition, in addition to providing the laboratory with a higher sample throughput and fewer errors within one day.

"This is an important milestone for us since we are now able to offer clinical laboratories an automated sample preparation solution using urine samples and now swab samples," says Mårten Wigstøl, CEO in NorDiag. This provides us with a competitive advantage over suppliers that can only offer one method; either urine -or swab samples, as most hospitals apply both methods. It also widens our market potential for sale of our Bullet instrument to clinical laboratories".

Contact:
CEO Mårten Wigstøl
Phone: +47 91165775

About NorDiag:
NorDiag is a biotechnology company developing, manufacturing and marketing automated solutions, instruments and tests, for use in diagnostic of infectious diseases and cancer. The Company`s core competence is isolation of bacterial and human DNA from difficult clinical samples, and the Company has established a solid market share in the Scandinavian market for sexually transmitted infections. The company has similar applications for Tuberculosis, MRSA and DNA from stool. Applications for respiratory pathogens and viruses are under development. NorDiag was founded in 2003 and has its headquarters in Oslo - Norway. The Company has offices and laboratories in Stockholm - Sweden and West Chester (PA) - USA. The group has 36 employees. NorDiag is listed on Oslo Stock Exchange with the ticker NORD. For further information - www.nordiag.com.

Read the notice in Norwegian here