Roche seeks fast-track US okay of Ebola diagnostic test

Swiss pharmaceutical group Roche hopes to obtain fast-track US approval for a rapid diagnostic test for Ebola, its director general said in an interview published Sunday, amid the worst-ever outbreak of the killer disease.

The diagnostic test is ready for use in scientific research but the company now wants to register it for clinical use.

Roche has filed for European Union approval of the test and plans shortly to do the same with US health authorities, CEO Severin Schwan told the Swiss German SonntagsZeitung newspaper.

"We hope that they will grant us an accelerated authorisation procedure," Schwan said.

More than 10,000 people have contracted the Ebola virus, according to the latest World Health Organization figures, mainly in the west African countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

More than 4,900 people have died of the hemorrhagic virus, according to the figures from October 23.