In cooperation with the China Cancer Foundation, Qiagen offered free screening of human papillomavirus, which is a root cause of cervical cancer, for low-income women at 31 Chinese hospitals on March 8, the International Women's Day.

More than 3000 low-income women benefited from the program, which is part of CCF's national campaign against cancer.

"We firmly believe that cervical cancer will become a past tragedy by increasing people's awareness of the disease and promoting the screening of HPV," said Dr. Shi Chenyang, president of Qiagen Asia. "This means that we must take preventive measures to all women of the right age, including conducting HPV testing for them. We are honored to cooperate with CCF to turn this goal into reality on the International Women's Day.

Each year, there are about 500,000 new cervical cancer patients in the world and over half of them die from the disease. Qiagen is a leading provider of sample and assay technologies and has more than 2600 employees in over 30 regions across the world. Sample technologies are used to isolate DNA, RNA and proteins from any biological sample. Assay technologies are then used to make specific target biomolecules, such as the DNA of a specific virus, visible for subsequent analysis.

Founded in October 1984, CCF is a national non-profit organization engaged in promoting China's cancer research, prevention and treatment.