| bioMérieux
INDUSTRY and ABC Enter Agreement
for Use of BacT/ALERT® System in Blood Centers
ST. LOUIS — bioMérieux® INDUSTRY
has announced that it has entered into an agreement with America’s
Blood Centers, Washington, DC, to supply the BacT/ALERT®
automated microbial testing system to ABC’s member blood
centers. The blood centers will use the BacT/ALERT for quality
control testing of leukocyte reduced apheresis platelets, a new
application of the system recently cleared by the U.S. Food &
Drug Administration.
Bacterial contamination has been identified as one of the highest
transfusion-related risks in the U.S. Both ABC and bioMérieux
are confident the BacT/ALERT will help with the implementation
of multiple processes designed to reduce the incidence of bacterially
contaminated platelet transfusions.
Built on bioMérieux’s patented colorimetric technology,
the BacT/ALERT 3D demonstrates excellent recovery of a wide range
of organisms typically found in apheresis platelets. BacT/ALERT
Culture Media offer the ability to detect anaerobic and aerobic
microorganisms. Constant sample monitoring alerts the user immediately
to positive samples. BacT/ALERT 3D’s patented colorimetric
sensor-and-detection technology detects microorganism growth by
tracking CO2 production. Notification
of positives is immediate and results are dependable.
About bioMérieux INDUSTRY
bioMérieux INDUSTRY provides product solutions to quality
control and research microbiology laboratories. Applications served
include environmental monitoring, sterility testing, pathogen
screening, quality indicators, microbial identification, quality
control organisms, microbial limits and preservative effectiveness
testing.
About bioMérieux
A global leader in disease prevention and management, bioMérieux
provides assays, reagents and instrumentation for clinical microbiology,
coagulation, immunoassay, and nucleic acid diagnostics; and also
for product quality control in the agri-food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical
industries. Based in Marcy-l’Etoile, France, the company’s
U.S. headquarters is in Durham, North Carolina.
With sales of 1 billion Euros in 2002, bioMérieux ranks
as the eighth-largest biological diagnostics company worldwide.
Over 81% of its activity takes place on an international level.
Investment in research and development represents 13% of sales.
bioMérieux employs 5400 people throughout the world, including
3200 in Europe and 1500 in the U.S. The group has 15 production
sites located in France, the United States, Brazil, Italy and
the Netherlands, as well as a European logistics center in France.
Already present in over 130 countries, with more than 110 distributors
and 32 subsidiaries, bioMérieux continues its international
development by strengthening its presence in Latin America and
Asia.
About ABC
Founded in 1964 ABC is an international network of local, non-profit
community blood centers. Member blood banks collect nearly half
of the U.S. blood supply—more than any other organization—and
about 25% of the Canadian blood supply. ABC members represent
75 community-based blood centers in the U.S. and Canada, which
collected 7.5 million units of blood in 2001.
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