bioMérieux Receives the 2008 Diagnostic Marketing Association Creative Communications Award for Professional Relations

bioMérieux, a world leader in the field of in vitro diagnostics, has been awarded the 2008 Diagnostic Marketing Association (DxMA) Creative Communications Award in Professional Relations for its WorkSafe initiative. The award was presented at the 30th DxMA Annual Conference Creative Communications Awards Dinner and Ceremony on April 23 in Chicago. The award recognizes excellence programs that strengthen the relationship between the diagnostic industry and medical professionals. bioMérieux partnered with PDI and Smiths Medical for the WorkSafe campaign.

bioMérieux’s WorkSafe initiative is designed to provide the tools needed for proper blood culture collection to increase safety and combat rising infection rates, antibiotic resistance and sepsis in hospitals. The campaign includes four phases: collection, testing, culture and care. bioMérieux launched the initiative by providing laboratory professionals with WorkSafe resource kits that included a blood culture collection training video, competency checklist and certification that highlights all four phases of the program.

The WorkSafe collection phase, which launched May 2007, features the bioMérieux Blood Culture Collection Kit which equips hospital workers with one simple kit to follow best practices for blood culture-collection. Each latex-free kit includes BacT/ALERT® Bottles, Smiths Medical Saf-T Holder®Blood Culture Device, 2” x 2” gauze, alcohol prep pads, bandage, biohazard bag, PDI®Chlorascrub™ 3.15% Chlorhexidine Gluconate Swabstick, folded instruction sheet and tourniquet.

“bioMérieux is excited to receive this award and celebrate the success of the WorkSafe initiative,” said Herb Steward, executive vice president and general manager, bioMérieux North America. “As a leader in the diagnostics field, we feel it is our responsibility to provide the educational tools and training needed to help improve clinical decision making and overall patient safety. This award demonstrates our commitment to our clients as well as overall public health.”

bioMérieux also complemented the WorkSafe campaign with a dynamic marketing strategy that involved reaching out to media, customers and healthcare leaders. Additional best practice campaigns for the remaining phases are in development.

Every year, DxMa honors companies that have utilized integrative and dynamic diagnostics marketing techniques to achieve results. bioMérieux joins a list of the who’s who of clinical diagnostics, showcasing their strength in building relationships between the diagnostic industry and medical professionals through implementation of their WorkSafe initiative.

For more information on bioMerieux’s WorkSafe initiative, please visit http://www.biomerieux-usa.com/worksafe.

About bioMérieux

Advancing Diagnostics to Improve Public Health

A world leader in the field of in vitro diagnostics for 45 years, bioMérieux is present in more than 150 countries through 38 subsidiaries and a large network of distributors. In 2007, revenues reached €1.063 billion with 84% 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. Our products are used for diagnosing infectious diseases and providing high medical value results for cardiovascular emergencies and cancer screening and monitoring. They are also used for detecting microorganisms in agri-food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic products. bioMérieux is listed on Eurolist by Euronext. For more information, visit www.biomerieux.com.

Media Contacts

Fleishman-Hillard
Tim Baker
Tel: 216-928-3469
tim.baker@fleishman.com

bioMérieux
Allan Mohess
bioMérieux, Inc.
Tel: 919-620-2937
allan.mohess@na.biomerieux.com