bioMérieux Demonstrates Emerging Technologies that Impact Speed of Diagnostics for Infectious Disease Clinicians

A world leader in the field of in vitro diagnostics, bioMérieux will showcase a variety of innovative solutions addressing Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAI), sepsis and toxoplasmosis, as well as new tools for rapid pathogen identification at the 49th Annual Meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA).

“As diagnostics and therapeutics converge, new methods of identifying and treating infectious diseases are emerging. bioMérieux is excited to be at the forefront, collaborating with some of the world’s best clinicians to improve patient outcomes today and ensure better health in the future,” said Manuel Mendez, bioMérieux Executive Vice President, North American Commercial Operations. “IDSA is the premier platform in the U.S. for bringing together the brightest minds in the field of infectious diseases, and we’re honored to be able to contribute our expertise.”

bioMérieux will present newly released products, poster sessions and presenters throughout the meeting, held in Boston, Massachusetts from October 20-23, including:

MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometry (RUO): Rapid pathogen identification is a major challenge for clinicians as they struggle to provide appropriate antimicrobial treatment while waiting sometimes days for a definitive ID. From positive cultures, MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometry (MS) holds the potential to reduce pathogen identification to just a few minutes. MALDI-TOF stands for Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization - Time of Flight, and is the technique used for profiling a sample for present proteins. This technology may also assist clinical microbiologists in facing the ever-increasing number of potentially pathogenic species of bacteria and fungi. Since antibiotic susceptibility testing results remain pivotal for physicians deciding patient treatment, bioMérieux is developing a solution integrating MALDI-TOF (VITEK MS™) with its VITEK® 2 range. The VITEK MS™ RUO is currently approved for research use only.

Solutions for Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs): Delivering solutions that provide clinicians with actionable results that enable proactive patient management is key to helping reduce HAIs. bioMérieux will feature new tools designed to deliver fast, accurate results, such as the new molecular screening assay, EasyQ® MRSA, as well as chromID™ products that enable MRSA and VRE screening.

“Our lab recently began using bioMérieux’s chromID and VITEK 2 to workup urine cultures. With these enhanced capabilities, we decreased turnaround time of results over traditional methods, allowing rapid, accurate reporting to physicians to help improve the quality of patient care,” said Mary M. Smith MS, MT (ASCP), Microbiology Supervisor, Texas Health Physicians Group Lab.

Procalcitonin: There is growing interest in Procalcitonin (PCT) as a novel biomarker for the aid in diagnosis and risk assessment of sepsis. Early detection and specific clinical intervention are crucial to improving outcomes of patients with sepsis.

"We use PCT in many ways; initially for the early diagnosis of sepsis and also for patients with ambiguous respiratory symptoms suspected of having a significant lower respiratory tract infection, where it can help confirm and differentiate a bacterial infection from a viral infection, or in other overlapping situations where a non-infectious process such as congestive heart failure may be the culprit,” said Devendra N. Amin, MD, FCCM, FCCP, Medical Director of Critical Care Services at Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater, Florida. “It provides a strong positive predictive value for bacterial infection if elevated, and has a stronger negative predictive value for bacterial infection if the level is low or normal."

New infectious disease assay: For pregnant women diagnosed with toxoplasmosis, the VIDAS® TOXO IgG Avidity can be used to exclude a recent infection, helping ease patient anxiety and eliminate the need for additional, unnecessary procedures. This exclusive marker is the first test available in the U.S. to help determine if a toxoplasmosis infection was developed within the past four months.

According to a press release issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, toxoplasmosis can have serious and lasting health consequences for infants that acquire the infection in the womb. The release states that the new TOXO Avidity test gives doctors an additional tool to determine if women with confirmed cases of toxoplasmosis acquired the infection before or during pregnancy. bioMérieux is pleased to share information about this new biomarker during several educational sessions:

• TOXO Educational Session: Friday, October 21 at 10:45 a.m.

  “Parasites that Challenge” Dr. Jose Montoya (Palo Alto Medical Foundation) will present during the session.
   

• Poster Session (B1/Presentation 200): Friday, October 21 at 12:15 p.m.

  “Evaluation of the VIDAS Toxo IgG Avidity Assay Compared to a Composite Reference Method (Palo Alto Medical Foundation Toxoplasma Serological Profile) as a test to Exclude Patients with Acute Toxoplasma Gondii infection of < 4 Months”
   

• Meet the Expert Session at bioMérieux Booth # 91: Saturday, October 22 at 10:00 a.m.

  “Toxoplasmosis in the U.S.: Screening, Diagnosis and Prevention” with Dr. Montoya

About bioMérieux

Advancing Diagnostics to Improve Public Health

A world leader in the field of in vitro diagnostics for over 45 years, bioMérieux is present in more than 150 countries through 39 subsidiaries and a large network of distributors. In 2010, revenues reached €1.357 billion with 87% of sales outside of France.

bioMérieux provides diagnostic solutions (reagents, instruments, software) which determine the source of disease and contamination to improve patient health and ensure consumer safety. Its products are used for diagnosing infectious diseases and providing high medical value results for cancer screening and monitoring and cardiovascular emergencies. They are also used for detecting microorganisms in agri-food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic products.

bioMérieux is listed on the NYSE Euronext Paris market (Symbol: BIM – ISIN: FR0010096479).

Other information can be found at www.biomerieux-usa.com.

Media Relations Contacts

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