Menarini Silicon Biosystems (MSB), Bologna, Italy, and OpGen, Gaithersburg, Md, have formed a partnership to promote MSB’s CellSearch Circulating Endothelial Cell (CEC) Kit to study the progression of covid-19. Menarini’s CellSearch system, CellSearch CEC kit and covid-19-related products will be marketed and sold by OpGen to infectious disease healthcare providers and researchers in North America.

Fabio Piazzalunga, Menarini Silicon Biosystems.

Fabio Piazzalunga, Menarini Silicon Biosystems.

The partnership will focus on promoting Menarini’s CellSearch system for CEC application, for the enrichment and enumeration of CEC from whole blood. CEC count is useful in studying the progression of covid-19 and potentially in identifying patients at risk of developing more severe complications.

Both parties intend to expand the portfolio of covid-19 products and platforms available over the coming months as they become available for sale. The OpGen commercial team will offer these products to its infectious disease contacts in hospitals, labs, and research centers, along with distributors and other relevant stakeholders in the covid-19 testing space.

“We are excited to partner with OpGen for the commercialization of our CellSearch CEC Kit and our expanding portfolio of covid-19-related products in the US market,” says Fabio Piazzalunga, president and CEO of Menarini Silicon Biosystems. “This deal further extends the strategic distribution partnership which Menarini has built over the past 15 months in 11 European markets for OpGen’s subsidiary Curetis GmbH’s Unyvero platform and forms another element of our strategic presence in the infectious disease diagnostics market.”

The CellSearch Circulating Endothelial Cell Kit is for research use only.

For more information, visit Menarini Silicon Biosystemsand OpGen.