Gen-Probe Inc., a San Diego biotechnology company,...

Gen-Probe Inc., a San Diego biotechnology company, announced that it has been given federal Food and Drug Administration clearance to market a diagnostic test kit used in hospital laboratories to detect tuberculosis.

The test kit, which uses DNA-probe technology and which is applied directly to a patient’s sputum, provides doctors with a diagnosis of tuberculosis in a few hours, contrasted with up to several weeks required for some tests using cultures.