Seegene to offer multiple testing for flu and other respiratory ailments

Rockville company says its test is quick and efficient

Seegene of Rockville will announce Tuesday that it sees a big market ahead for its patented respiratory test that can rapidly and simultaneously pinpoint the genetic material of 18 different viral or bacterial pathogens.

Seegene is seeking a partner to distribute its test in this country and already has a ‘‘reference partner” for developing its multiplex test for sexual transmitted diseases.

‘‘Our new 18-Plex Respiratory Test is what the clinical health care industry has been asking for — the ability to routinely test for a wide spectrum of respiratory pathogens in a single test, at the price of a single pathogen test,” Jong-Yoon Chun, Seegene founder and CEO, said in a statement.

The company offers molecular diagnostics services to more than 1,000 major institutes in more than 25 countries, according to its Web site. Seegene was founded in 2000 and is based in Rockville and Seoul.

Earlier this year, the company also announced a similar test for multi-testing for human papillomaviruses, which can cause cervical cancer. In May, Beltsville bioscience company BioServe announced it was partnering with Seegene to develop, validate and service new test systems for infectious diseases in India.

The Seeplex respiratory test can detect DNA or RNA from any of 13 major respiratory infection viruses and five respiratory infection bacteria, but not tuberculosis, Joung said. The new test will be ‘‘a breakthrough” in how hospitals and other medical centers test patients exhibiting flu-like symptoms, she said.

Privately held Seegene, which declined to disclose financial information, changed its business plan last year to become a molecular diagnostic company, Joung said. It had previously operated strictly as a testing laboratory.

‘‘In Korea we had major good collaboration with many hospitals and major medical universities. You name it, we worked with them,” she said. Based on feedback on its multi-testing techniques, Seegene began to concentrate on such testing.

It is setting up an independent company in the United States for tax reporting and registering its intellectual properties.

The company has already developed the Seeplex 18-Plex Respiratory Test, which will enter production next month, Joung said.

The company claims that in four hours the test detects several viruses, including influenza and other human respiratory viruses.