BRAMPTON, ON, Sept. 3, 2015 /CNW/ - Dynacare is pleased to announce that it has been selected by the Government of Ontario to perform provincially funded Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT) in Ontario. This award was made following a call for Expression of Interest (EOI) by the Ontario Government, related to repatriation of genetic tests currently billed to the Province as 'tests performed out-of-the-country'. Upon completion of negotiations with the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, Dynacare will be licensed to perform testing in its Ontario Molecular Genetics Centre of Excellence, a fully accredited medical laboratory facility specializing in pathology, immunopathology, genetics and pharmacogenomics testing.

"As a national leader in laboratory testing with clients around the world, we are very proud to have been selected to perform NIPT in Ontario," said Naseem Somani, President and CEO of Dynacare. "In 2013, we were the first laboratory to introduce this test for high-risk pregnancies in Canada."

Dynacare offers the Harmony^TM Prenatal Test - a simple maternal blood test from which cell free fetal DNA is analysed to identify risk of fetal trisomies (including trisomy 21, also called Down syndrome) in pregnancies of 10 weeks or more. 

"Numerous clinical studies have shown the ability of the Harmony^TM Prenatal Test to test for fetal trisomies with high accuracy," said Dr. Joel Goodman, Vice-President, Strategies and Innovation, Dynacare. "The Harmony^TM test has a combined sensitivity of 99% and a false-positive rate of less than 0.1%.* Testing can be performed on twins and all IVF pregnancies and also offers options for Y or X, Y analysis for testing sex chromosome aneuploidies."

The Harmony^TM Prenatal Test is available at Dynacare locations and through Dynacare mobile collection services (formerly MedAxio) across Canada.**

*Norton, M., et al., N Engl J Med 2015; 372:1589-1597; April 23, 2015; DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1407349

**Data have not been submitted to or evaluated by Federal regulatory agencies and the test is not for sale as an In Vitro Diagnostic (IVD) in the US.

About Dynacare

Supporting healthy lives with commitment and care.  By living this mission, Dynacare will achieve its vision of becoming Canada's health and wellness solutions leader.

Dynacare (formerly Gamma-Dynacare Medical Laboratories) is one of Canada's largest providers of health and wellness solutions, with a history that spans more than 50 years. Headquartered in Brampton, Ontario, the company has operations in Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia.  Every year, Dynacare takes care of more than 10 million Canadians through the accurate and timely delivery of laboratory test results and other health-related services to patients, physicians, healthcare facilities and companies in a wide range of industries.

The Harmony^TM Prenatal Test is a registered trademark of Ariosa Diagnostics, Inc.

The views expressed in this publication are the views of Dynacare and do not necessarily reflect those of the Province.

SOURCE Dynacare

Image with caption: "Dynacare (CNW Group/Dynacare)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20150903_C8332_PHOTO_EN_490112.jpg