bioMérieux, a world leader in the field of in vitro diagnostics and Banyan Biomarkers, an innovative biomarkers company developing blood tests capable of diagnosing traumatic brain injuries (TBI), announced today that they have entered into a partnership. Under the terms of the agreement, bioMérieux takes an equity participation of about $7 million in Banyan Biomarkers and obtains the rights to commercialize Banyan’s proprietary tests worldwide for use in in vitro diagnostics, with preferred rights for its VIDAS® immunoassays range. In addition, the two companies will continue to explore co-development opportunities in the area of TBI and critical care.
According to the World Health Organization, there are an estimated 10 million people affected annually by TBI. The burden of mortality and morbidity that this condition imposes on society makes TBI a pressing public health, medical problem and weighs heavily on healthcare costs. The US Center for Disease Control estimates there are over 2.5 million emergency room visits in the U.S. as a result of TBI and an associated economic burden of more than $75 billion a year on the healthcare system1. There has been a significant increase in the awareness of TBI over the past few years, but diagnoses are still performed using cognitive assessments and CT scans, which are costly, time consuming, and have limited sensitivity. Banyan’s biomarkers have the potential to objectively diagnose TBI with a simple blood test and to help avoid unnecessary patient exposure to dangerous ionizing radiation.
By combining Banyan’s innovative biomarkers with bioMérieux leading position in IVD at the critical care and its global commercial footprint, both companies aim at bringing to clinicians the first FDA-approved blood-based automated test for TBI.
“We have been especially impressed by the quality of the team at Banyan Biomarkers, the thoroughness of their work and the promising data,” said Francois Lacoste, Corporate Vice President, Clinical Unit at bioMérieux. “This partnership with Banyan Biomarkers illustrates our commitment to bring pioneering high medical value diagnostic solutions to the physicians and help them improve patient care and reduce healthcare spending.”
“bioMérieux’s illustrious history, scientific excellence, strong market presence and culture of growth and innovation are reasons we are very optimistic about our ability to jointly transform the global diagnosis of TBI with our biomarker assay on the VIDAS® range of instruments,” stated Hank Nordhoff, Chairman and CEO of Banyan Biomarkers.
ABOUT BANYAN BIOMARKERS
Banyan Biomarkers, Inc. is developing a blood test that could be used by physicians and healthcare providers to rapidly and objectively detect the presence of mild TBI, also known as concussions, and improve the medical management of head injured patients. The Company’s test uses two brain specific protein biomarkers (Banyan UCH-L1™ and Banyan GFAP™) that rapidly appear in the blood after a brain injury. To learn more about Banyan Biomarkers, visit www.banyanbio.com.
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