Shield launches test
for antibiotic susceptibility
in N. gonorrhoeae
April 2019—Shield Diagnostics launched Target-NG, a rapid molecular test for antibiotic susceptibility in Neisseria gonorrhoeae. “Rapid molecular testing for ciprofloxacin resistance allows for smarter medicine,” Jeffrey D. Klausner, MD, MPH, a professor of infectious disease medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, said in a Shield statement. “Right now we’re treating gonorrhea with a sledgehammer; we’re treating everything with the same exact regimen. And it’s not a surprise that the organism will become resistant to what we’re currently using.” Ciprofloxacin can be used to treat 80 percent of infections and is 99.8 percent effective when susceptibility has been determined. Because it is administered as a single oral dose, rather than the current injectable treatment, clinicians can prescribe antibiotics for the patient to give to their partners. “Shield has launched Target-NG to help clinicians adopt a precision medicine approach to gonorrhea treatment,” said Nidhi Gupta, PhD, lead scientist on the project.