bioMérieux's Odyssey Tour Brings Education and Training to Healthcare and Quality Assurance Professionals Nationwide

bioMérieux, a world leader in the field of in vitro diagnostics, is embarking on a tour across the United States to provide industry professionals with innovative training in advanced diagnostics solutions that can improve public health. The 83-foot Odyssey, equipped with a mobile diagnostics laboratory and theater, will bring lab automation, diagnostic solutions and product training directly to customers. bioMérieux provides diagnostic solutions (reagents, instruments, software) to clinical laboratories as well as biopharmaceutical and agrifood industry laboratories. The bioMérieux Odyssey tour has more than 35 stops in major metropolitan areas and at key regional tradeshows. This is the fourth year for the bioMérieux education tour, and the Odyssey is the company’s largest mobile endeavor to date (http://www.biomerieux-usa.com/odyssey).

This year the bioMérieux Odyssey has been outfitted with the latest solutions that support Full Microbiology Lab Automation (FMLA) www.biomerieux-usa.com/fmla. Given the skilled-labor issue in labs today and the growing demands in the microbiology lab, the Odyssey will feature innovative FMLA solutions: PREVI™ Isola, a pre-poured media streaker designed to automate routine agar plate processing; the PREVI™ Color Gram, bringing automation to a new lab procedure with its unique staining technology; and the UF-1000i, a urinary screening tool that allows laboratory technicians to accurately detect and enumerate the bacteria and particles present in urine specimens. Pre-analytical processes such as these have been in great need in the microbiology lab and could optimize lab technician time for more valuable tasks or interpretation of results to clinicians.

The Odyssey will also build awareness of Superbugs and present solutions to prevent the spread of Multi Drug Resistant Organisms (MDRO) such as MRSA and C. difficile. These organisms pose an increasing threat to public health and affect more than 1.7 million Americans each year.¹

The Odyssey tour features food testing systems including TEMPO® and VIDAS®, and showcases the new VIDAS® UP recombinant phage protein technology – all of which help to ensure a safe food supply and rapidly identify food-borne illnesses such as Salmonella, Listeria, and E. coli O157:H7, along with the enumeration of a full range of quality indicator organisms.

For the pharmaceutical market, bioMérieux offers a full range of identification solutions and prepared culture media including two new innovative culture media for Media Fill Tests that enable pharmaceutical companies to verify the sterility of their production processes for injectable medical products (vaccines, insulin, intravenous fluids, etc.).

“bioMérieux is dedicated to offering the latest automated diagnostics solutions as well as hands-on training and education to our customers,” said Herb Steward, executive vice president and general manager for bioMérieux North America. “These solutions make a significant impact on patient health and product safety. This is timely given the recent food-borne outbreaks and the growing issue of drug-resistant organisms in hospitals.”

¹ Klevens, R. Monina, DDS, MPH, et al. 2007. Estimating Health Care-Associated Infections and deaths in U.S. Hospitals, 2002. Public Health Reports, Vol. 122. March - April 2007. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dhqp/pdf/hicpac/infections_deaths.pdf

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 39 subsidiaries and a large network of distributors. In 2008, revenues reached €1.111 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. 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 (Code: BIM – Code ISIN: FR0010096479). Other information can be found at www.biomerieux-usa.com.

bioMérieux Contacts

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

Fleishman Hillard
Tim Baker
Tel: + 1 216 338-8086
tim.baker@fleishman.com