Meridian Bioscience, Inc. announced it has signed a new group purchasing agreement with the Premier healthcare alliance to offer illumigene® C. difficile and illumigene Group B Streptococcus to its members at specially negotiated pricing. Premier serves more than 2,500 U.S. hospitals and 81,000-plus other healthcare sites. This agreement allows Premier alliance facilities to implement rapid, sensitive molecular tests for C. difficile and Group B Streptococcus without individual negotiations.
Premier’s mission is “to improve the health of communities” and using the power of collaboration to lead the transformation to high-quality, cost-effective care aligns with Meridian’s promise to provide a new standard for patient care with our innovative diagnostic testing solutions. Meridian is privileged to be awarded this agreement with Premier and Premier members to assist their efforts to improve quality of patient care and reduce healthcare costs.
The illumigene molecular system utilizes loop-mediated isothermal DNA amplification (LAMP) technology. The test procedure is remarkably simple, highly sensitive, and yields results in less than one hour. It requires no expensive capital equipment. The test relies upon a simple procedure that includes heat treatment, amplification and detection. The entire amplification is isothermal and results are read on the illumipro-10™ instrument. All reagents and disposables are contained in the test kit and can be stored at room temperature. Meridian believes that the “point-of-care” simplicity of this technology, along with its cost efficiency, make illumigene ideal for helping in early diagnosis and proper management of preventable and treatable diseases, especially in those instances where there is a low level of the biological target.
Richard L. Eberly, Chief Commercial Officer, commented, “This is an exciting opportunity for Meridian to accelerate illumigene placements to Premier members. We are privileged to collaborate with the Premier healthcare alliance to assist Premier members in their efforts to improve the quality of patient care and drive costs out of their facilities.”