Thermo Fisher Scientific Procalcitonin biomarker assay now available to a broader patient base
Biomarker assay for the diagnosis of sepsis now available on the Lumipulse platform.
Thermo Fisher Scientific has signed a long term licence agreement with Fujirebio Inc. combining their Procalcitonin biomarker assay with the LumipulseTM platform. The agreement with Fujirebio allows the PCT biomarker assay to be available on their Lumipulse® series, which is a fully integrated chemiluminescent enzyme immunoassay technology and is available in Japan.
Currently the PCT assay is available worldwide on a range of laboratory instruments. For critically ill patients in Europe this assay is the gold standard for the detection of sepsis. The disease is thought to claim 10,000 lives per day worldwide and is a major burden to healthcare systems across the world. The assay is able to help doctors detect whether sepsis is caused by a viral or a bacterial infection and ultimately to implement the correct course of treatment and monitoring. When a patient is suspected of having sepsis in Japan, the assay is used. At present Japan is the country where the agreement between the two companies will be focused on as Fujirebio’s Lumipulse platform product line is found in many hospitals and clinical reference labs in Japan.
Speaking about the agreement Mark Tremblay the president of Thermo Fisher Scientific’s Clinical Diagnostics business commented, “This agreement with Fujirebio ensures that PCT testing will be available to a much broader patient base, helping to improve patient’s outcome.”
Sixteen billion US dollars annually is the estimated cost to hospitals of sepsis in the USA and it is hoped that the broader availability of the assay will help to improve hospital management. Tremblay added that, “Through the earlier detection of sepsis, healthcare providers can offer much better treatment to their patients and also achieve dramatic cost-savings.”
