Following the FDA approval of ASTar on April 26, 2024, Q-linea has now begun to ship instruments ready-built for the US market with dedicated software and consumables. The first such instrument has been sent from Uppsala bound for installation at a customer site. Evaluations of the instrument are scheduled to take place over the next several months.

As Jim Kathrein, VP US Commercial Operations for Q-linea, states, “we are seeing growing interest in ASTar. The team has been working hard since our FDA clearance in April to finalize the US-specific software and settings for ASTar. This shipment is another important milestone for Q-linea as we can now place instruments that are immediately ready for clinical use following their evaluation period. We expect to initiate more evaluations over the coming months as labs are increasingly aware of the potential from high-value rapid AST testing for their patients and the benefits to the lab from improved workflow.”