Hamburg, Germany-based altona Diagnostics has earned the CE mark for its AltoStar HIV reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) diagnostic. 

The in vitro diagnostic is now cleared in Europe for detecting and quantifying HIV-1-specific RNA in human plasma samples and is intended for the monitoring of patients infected with the virus.

The test is run on the AltoStar Automation System AM16, a robotic pipetting workstation that automatically purifies nucleic acids and automates assay setup.