Royal Philips Electronics said it has partnered with bioMérieux to develop fully automated handheld diagnostic testing solutions for hospital use that can be deployed at the point-of-care (close to the patient).

The collaboration aims to improve diagnosis and management of disease in critical care settings within hospitals (for example, Emergency Departments, Coronary Units and Intensive Care Units (ICUs)), said a top Philips official.

'Philips is convinced that point-of-care testing in hospital critical care settings will play a major part in improving patient outcomes and reducing healthcare costs,' said Steve Rusckowski, executive vice president and chief executive officer, Philips Healthcare.

'It is an excellent fit with our leading market position in critical care settings and our holistic care cycle approach to, for example, cardiac care,' he explained.

“Their combined knowledge of medical technology, biomarker assays and clinical workflows, coupled with their joint understanding of the relevant markets, stakeholders and channels, puts Philips and bioMérieux in a commanding position to drive forward a paradigm change in critical care decision-making,” he added.

“We are very pleased to be partnering with Philips, which has a strong tradition in innovating patient care, and our collaboration will result in superb products able to rapidly deliver high medical value results to clinicians,” said Stéphane Bancel, bioMérieux chief executive officer.

“We will be leveraging the strong synergies between our Vidas biology expertise and Philips’ unique engineering and technology capabilities. This new point-of-care testing device will allow us to enter a market that is growing at about 10 per cent a year,” he said.

This new alliance unites Philips’ existing strengths in medical technology, patient monitoring and healthcare IT, including solutions aimed at helping clinicians to make more informed decisions, with bioMérieux’s expertise in the development of biological assays and its extensive knowledge of cardiovascular and infectious disease markers.

'A product development program is underway and the first milestone is expected in 2010. As part of the agreement, bioMérieux will have access to Philips’ proprietary Magnotech technology for hospital-based point-of-care testing applications,' he noted.

Commercial solutions resulting from the partnership will be co-branded by Philips and bioMérieux, with bioMérieux being the exclusive distributor worldwide. The two companies intend to have products on the market by 2013.-TradeArabia News Service