Hepanostika® HBsAg Ultra – New “ultra”-sensitive test for Hepatitis B infection from bioMérieux

Hepanostika® HBsAg Ultra – New “ultra”-sensitive test for Hepatitis B infection from bioMérieux

Marcy l’Etoile, France - July 5, 2005. bioMérieux, a world leader in the field of in vitro diagnostics, announces the launch of its new microelisa assay for the detection of hepatitis B surface antigen. Hepanostika® HBsAg Ultra is officially presented at the XV European Regional Congress of the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT) currently being held from July 2-6 in Athens, Greece.
 

The Hepanostika HBsAg Ultra assay offers state-of-the-art sensitivity and excellent specificity for the detection of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) in human plasma or serum. HBsAg is the most important marker for the diagnosis of acute or chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. In blood banks, routine screening of donor blood for HBsAg is mandatory to avoid transmission of hepatitis B. This has dramatically reduced the risk of post transfusion hepatitis B infection.

“The introduction of Hepanostika HBsAg Ultra forms part of bioMérieux’s strategy as an important player in the field of in vitro diagnostics. In particular, bioMérieux holds highly specific competence in the area of Human Immunodeficiency virus and Hepatitis B virus diagnostics acquired through the company’s commitment to the fight against infectious diseases”, states Benoît Adelus, Executive Vice President of bioMérieux.

Hepanostika HBsAg Ultra enables detection of all known subtypes and clinically relevant variants of HBsAg using a convenient test procedure. The ability of the test to detect mutant antigen enables accurate patient diagnosis and ensures reliable screening of blood-transfusion products. Hepanostika HBsAg Ultra is a CE-marked in vitro diagnostic product and will initially be commercialized in Europe and the Middle -East.

bioMérieux holds a significant position in the blood bank market with a broad range of high-performance microelisa products, including the automated DA VINCI® immunoanalyser as well as reagents for the detection of HIV, hepatitis B, syphilis and cytomegalovirus.
 

Hepatitis B

Hepatitis B is one of the major diseases of mankind and is a serious global public health problem. Of the 2 billion people infected with the hepatitis B virus (HBV), over 350 million have chronic HBV infections.
These chronically infected persons are at high risk of death from cirrhosis of the liver and liver cancer, diseases that kill about one million persons each year(1).

Despite the availability of vaccines, HBV remains a major threat to public health worldwide, since it is 50-100 times more infectious than HIV and is more prevalent than the hepatitis C virus. The transmission modes for HBV are generally mother-to-child transmission, sexual contact, contaminated blood, body fluids and secretions.

(1) World Health Organisation

About bioMérieux

bioMérieux is a leading international diagnostics group that specialises in the field of in vitro diagnostics for clinical and industrial applications. bioMérieux designs, develops, manufactures and markets systems (i.e. reagents, instruments and software) used in:

• Clinical applications: the diagnosis of infectious diseases such as hepatitis, HIV, tuberculosis and respiratory illnesses, as well as pathologies such as cardiovascular diseas es and cancer, based on the analysis of biological samples (such as blood, saliva or urine); and
• Industrial applications: the microbiological analysis of food, environments (such as water and air), surfaces and pharmaceutical and cosmetic products, based on the analysis of product or environmental samples.

In 2004, bioMérieux sales reached 931 million euros. The company is present in more than 130 countries through 33 subsidiaries and a large network of distributors, which positions the company well to benefit from the growth potential of the in vitro diagnostics market. Some important drivers that underpin this growth are aging populations and agerelated illness, illnesses related to life-style and eating habits, emerging new pathogens, the development of antibioticresistant bacteria, the fight against bio-terrorism, the recognition of the importance of the quality of food products.

bioMérieux is listed on the Eurolist of Euronext, Paris (FR0010096479 – BIM).