RECENT NEWS
2010: Upcoming Meeting
May 23rd - 27th -
ASM's 110th General
Meeting, San Diego, CA
Visit TechLab at Booth #
235, and Inverness Medical at Booth # 718
March 2009: New Press Release From Inverness Medical
Inverness Medical Innovations launches the new FDA cleared
C. DIFF QUIK CHEK
COMPLETE® rapid test
Waltham, MA, March 30, 2009– Inverness
Medical Innovations, Inc. (NYSE:IMA), a global leader in enabling
individuals to take charge of their health at home through the merger of
rapid diagnostics and health management, announced today that it will begin
marketing and distributing the new
C. DIFF QUIK CHEK
COMPLETE® rapid
test as an in vitro diagnostic aid for Clostridium difficile associated
disease (CDAD). This follows TECHLAB®, Inc.’s recent clearance from the
Federal Drug Administration (FDA) to manufacture the product for Inverness.
C. difficile is responsible for the most common form of
hospital-acquired diarrhea and antibiotic-associated colitis. C. difficile
is highly infectious and a significant danger to the health of
immunocompromised or elderly patients. The infection can be life-threatening
when not caught in time to allow for appropriate therapy to combat the
disease and thereby reduce morbidity associated with CDAD. The new rapid
test yields results within 30 minutes and detects all strains of C. difficile, including the highly virulent strain BINAP1/027 which is causing
outbreaks of increasing severity and mortality across Europe and North
America. Collective scientific data suggests that the incidence of C. difficile infection (CDI) has recently increased in East Asia and the
Middle East, further highlighting the disease as a global epidemic. In US
Hospitals alone, current annual spending is estimated at $40 million in
testing aimed at diagnosing CDAD patients in order to provide appropriate
therapy and control the spread of the disease. While primarily a
hospital-acquired disease, C. difficile infection is increasingly occurring
in community outpatient settings. This is causing a major problem for
hospital and community care environments because the number of patients at
risk for C. difficile infection is substantial. At present, the
incidence of infection has reached epidemic proportions. Recently-released
results from the “National Prevalence Study of Clostridium difficile in
US Healthcare Facilities” indicate that the rate of infection, or
colonization, is 6.5 to 20 times greater than previous estimates.
The
C. DIFF QUIK CHEK
COMPLETE® test offered by Inverness Medical is the
only device that simultaneously detects both C. difficile glutamate
dehydrogenase (GDH) and C. difficile toxins A and B in one simple assay. It
can be used for screening while also confirming the presence of
toxigenic C. difficile strains. The test provides results in less than 30
minutes from fecal samples, enabling rapid diagnosis and initiation of
appropriate patient management. With use of a C. difficile rapid test,
patients can be effectively isolated at an earlier stage of illness, reducing the risk of cross contamination and widespread outbreaks.
The C. difficile antigen glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) used in the test is
common to all strains of C. difficile and has been identified as an
excellent screening marker for the infection. The new
C. DIFF QUIK CHEK
COMPLETE® test, developed and manufactured by TECHLAB®, Inc. in
Blacksburg, VA, provides a more complete picture of the patient’s disease
state within one single test format with quicker time to results and
higher negative predictive value (less false negative results) when compared
to alternative existing testing methods.
About TECHLAB®
TECHLAB®, Inc. continues to be at the forefront of C. difficile research and
are experts in the field of enteric diagnostics; and with Inverness
Medical, offer a wide range of testing formats for the detection of C. difficile antigen glutamate dehydrogenase and toxins A and B that can suit all laboratory practices and preferences.
About Inverness
By
developing new capabilities in near-patient diagnosis, monitoring and health
management, Inverness Medical Innovations enables individuals to take
charge of improving their health and quality of life. A global leader in
rapid point-of-care diagnostics, Inverness’ products, as well as its new
product development efforts, focus on infectious disease, cardiology,
oncology, drugs of abuse and women’s health. Inverness is headquartered
in Waltham, Massachusetts.
For more information about
Inverness Medical Innovations, please visit our website at
http://www.invernessmedical.com.
February 2007: Everything Comes Down To Poo
A 2007 episode of NBC's Scrubs featured a song that we couldn't resist sharing. Click here to see for yourself!
January 2007: Fears over deadly hospital bugs
The deadly Clostridium difficile hospital bug is on the rise, while MRSA superbug rates are falling too slowly to meet government targets. Read more