Roche Diagnostics Middle East launches its cobas u 601 urine analyzer at Arab Health today

Cobas u 601 urine analyzer provides a new dimension in productivity, efficiency, process innovation and consolidation
Roche Diagnostics Middle East enables solutions for laboratory testing, information management, workflow integration and automation

DUBAI, UAE, 30th January, 2014, Today Roche Diagnostics Middle East launches its cobas u 601 urine analyzer at Arab Health 2014, the first in the region. As a successor of the URISYS® 2400 urinalysis analyzer, this solution significantly improves productivity and efficiency of urine testing as a result of many years of experience and innovation by Roche Diagnostics in the urine testing field. It provides a valuable solution to the key challenges in today's busy laboratories by enabling; consolidation of the urine work area, automation of the gold standard, optimization of workflow, and innovative photometer technology for strip reading.

The cobas u 601 is a fully automated urine analysis system intended for in vitro qualitative determination of urine strip testing. The measurements are useful in the evaluation of renal, urinary, hepatic and metabolic disorders. It process up to 240 samples/hour equaling to 2500 samples per day and performs fully automated urine strip testing and automated sediment microscopy with the benefit of real images.

"Based on 50 years of experience in urine analysis and constant innovation at Roche Diagnostics we are now able to bring to the Middle East the latest technology in urinalysis, a vital diagnostic tool for many diseases such as urinary tract infection, kidney disease and diabetes," said Moritz Hartmann, General Manager of Roche Diagnostics Middle East. "The urine analyzer automates all manual steps and provides high quality results, minimizing operator intervention, providing confidence in results, and ultimately aiding in the early identification of disease before the onset of symptoms, thereby preventing serious complications for the patient."

The cobas u 601 urine analyzer automates all manual steps and provides high quality results by proven unique reagent strip technology in urine analysis - Combur Test® strip technology. As a new generation test strip system, the cobas u 601 urine analyzer has innovative technologies, e.g. photometer technology for test strip result reading, RFID (radio frequency identification) technology on board and a unique modular design. The system provides accurate and safe results based on the combination of innovation and proven Combur Test® strip technology. The fully automated, high throughput sample flow allows for increased efficiency in productivity and consolidation of the urine work area. Workflow optimization is supported by the reagent free cassette concept which significantly reduces operation intervention while ensuring high quality of results, intuitive software navigation improving cost, staff and time management.

Roche Diagnostics Middle East's presence and launch of advanced technology at the Arab Health Exhibition & Congress, the largest healthcare event in the region, highlights the company's continuous in vitro diagnostic partnership and leadership in the Middle East. Established 39 years ago, Arab Health provides a platform for the world's leading manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors to meet the medical and scientific community in the Middle East and subcontinent.

To learn more about the cobas u 601, visit Roche Diagnostics Middle East stand at MC10 on 30th January at 11.00am at this year's Arab Health Congress at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibitions Centre.

About Roche
Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is a leader in research-focused healthcare with combined strengths in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. Roche is the world's largest biotech company, with truly differentiated medicines in oncology, infectious diseases, inflammation, metabolism and neuroscience. Roche is also the world leader in in vitro diagnostics and tissue-based cancer diagnostics, and a frontrunner in diabetes management. Roche have taken the unprecedented move of being the first IVD company to have a Management Center and a logistics hub in the Middle East. Roche has extended its ownership of the entire supply chain, quality control and customer support all the way into the centre of the region. This base of operations reinforces the commitment to global Roche Standards and is driven by a full team of vastly experienced specialists offering a complete portfolio of services. With this regional empowerment, Roche has moved its leadership and decision-making closer to its customers and distributors. These investments allow Roche Diagnostics Middle East to develop from being a supplier into becoming the preferred IVD partner for its customers.

Roche's personalised healthcare strategy aims at providing medicines and diagnostic tools that enable tangible improvements in the health, quality of life and survival of patients. In 2012, Roche had over 82,000 employees worldwide and invested over 8 billion Swiss francs in R&D. The Group posted sales of 45.5 billion Swiss francs. Genentech, in the United States, is a wholly owned member of the Roche Group. Roche is the majority shareholder in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan.

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