bioMérieux, Marcy l’Etoile, France, and Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc, Hennigsdorf, Germany, have renewed their nonexclusive, long-term, royalty-bearing agreement for Procalcitonin (PCT) testing, extending a long-standing relationship between the companies for biomarker testing using Thermo Fisher’s PCT product on bioMérieux’s VIDAS® and mini VIDAS® immunoassay platforms, and now also includes the new-generation VIDAS® products.
The PCT biomarker test is the gold standard for the early detection of sepsis in critically ill patients, according to bioMérieux. In the United States, the PCT test is marketed for use on the first day of ICU admission, and, combined with other laboratory tests and clinical assessment, aids in risk assessment of critically ill patients for progression to severe sepsis and septic shock. Broader availability of PCT testing for diagnosing sepsis will lead to improved hospital management and patient care.
Severe sepsis strikes more than 750,000 Americans each year, and between 28% to 50% of patients affected die within the first month of diagnosis. Hospital costs to treat severe sepsis in the United States are estimated at $16 billion dollars annually.1 Much of this cost is attributed to misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis, making rapid, more reliable detection a national, if not global, imperative. Research published in Critical Care Medicine showed that each hour of delay in therapy can decrease chances of patient survival by 7.6%.2
References:
[1] Angus DC, Linde-Zwirble WT,; Crit Care Med. 2001 Jul;29(7):1303-10
[2] Kumar A, Roberts D,; Crit Care Med. 2006 Jun;34(6):1589-96.
[Source: bioMérieux]
