Beckman Coulter, the biomedical testing company of Danaher, and Israeli medtech company MeMed expanded their existing partnership to focus on host immune response diagnostics.
The new agreement complements their existing partnership, initiated in February last year, to develop a MeMed BV-based test that runs on Beckman Coulter’s immunoassay analysers.
Under the expanded partnership, Beckman Coulter becomes an authorised distributor of the MeMed BV assay and MeMed Key.
MeMed BV is a rapid immunoassay test, designed to distinguish between bacterial and viral infections, and MeMed Key is a compact immunoassay analyser to run the MeMed BV test.
The test, using serum or whole blood, provides results within 15 minutes and has >99% negative predictive value (NPV) to rule out bacterial infection.
Beckman Coulter president Kevin O’Reilly said: “Beckman Coulter’s commitment to improving infection management is unwavering. To that end, we are excited to extend our partnership with MeMed by expanding market access to the MeMed Key and BV assay.
“These MeMed innovations complement Beckman Coulter’s portfolio of host response diagnostics, including our CBC-based haematological biomarker monocyte distribution width (MDW) identifying the presence of severe infection and risk of sepsis, our clinical chemistry procalcitonin (PCT) assay aiding risk assessment for septic shock, and our full suite of microbiology solutions providing faster time to optimize antibiotic therapies.”
MeMed BV is a diagnostic test developed to address the management of patients with acute infection in different clinical settings, including Emergency Departments.
The test uses a machine learning (ML) based algorithm to integrate measurements of three key host-immune proteins TRAIL, IP-10, and CRP into a score indicating the likelihood of infection.
Its performance has been validated on the MeMed Key device for more than 20,000 patients, in blinded validation studies along with real-world use in the US and EU.
MeMed BV for use on MeMed Key has been granted the CE-Marked approval, along with approvals by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Israeli Ministry of Health.
MeMed CEO and co-founder Eran Eden said: “We’re excited to expand our partnership with Beckman Coulter, taking an additional step forward in our shared mission to advance pioneering host-response solutions.
“This expansion focuses on two main objectives: first, to educate and prime the market to accelerate the adoption of MeMed BV once it’s cleared for use on Beckman Coulter’s core-lab immunoassay analysers; second, to broaden patient access to MeMed BV through a strategic hub and spoke model.
“By combining the capabilities of Beckman Coulter’s analysers with the MeMed Key’s ability to deliver results directly from whole blood within minutes, we’re creating a synergistic ecosystem that aids clinicians in distinguishing between bacterial and viral infections with unprecedented ease and precision.”
