The agreement's extension provides laboratorians with consistent control product and data management tools across the Siemens clinical laboratory portfolio
Tarrytown, NY and Hercules, CA, December 13, 2011 — Today, Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics and Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. announced an expansion of a global joint marketing agreement in which Bio-Rad will provide its quality control (QC) products and Unity™ data management solutions for Siemens' IMMULITE® Immunoassay, Dimension® Integrated Chemistry and Dimension Vista® Intelligent Lab systems. This move extends clinical laboratories' access to Bio-Rad's consistent control product and data management tools within the Siemens clinical laboratory systems portfolio which, until today, were only available through Siemens' ADVIA® Chemistry and ADVIA Centaur® Immunoassay systems.
Through this agreement, laboratories using Bio-Rad controls and Siemens proprietary-labeled controls on Siemens immunoassay and chemistry systems can participate in Bio-Rad's comprehensive Unity Interlaboratory Program. Bio-Rad's Unity software products offer varying levels of functionality, ranging from basic Internet-based data submission to advanced real-time QC data management, rules evaluation and analysis.
This joint marketing agreement is the result of a quantitative market research conducted by Siemens in which the company discovered that 80 percent of laboratories ranked improvement of QC data management and the need for multi-analyte controls to perform QC as either extremely important or very important. The research was conducted among nearly 400 hospital and private laboratories in the United States, Japan and five European countries in an effort to better understand their QC control and management needs.
"Siemens recognizes the importance of continually providing its laboratory customers access to advanced QC tools that bring confidence to testing and contribute to improved healthcare outcomes," said Dave Hickey, CEO, Chemistry, Immunoassay, Automation and Diagnostics IT Business Unit, Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics. "We are pleased to extend our partnership with Bio-Rad, which we believe will help to address the QC management challenges experienced by laboratories by helping them to further streamline inventory management, enhance efficiencies, ensure the reliability of patient results and lead to overall cost savings."
"We are pleased to extend our partnership with Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics," said John Goetz, Bio-Rad Vice President and Group Manager Clinical Diagnostics. "As a result, customers will have another portal to access Bio Rad's comprehensive line of multi-analyte quality controls and QC data management solutions, which include our comprehensive Unity Interlaboratory Program that helps to ensure the reliability and precision of test systems."
Additionally, the two companies have also signed an agreement whereby Bio-Rad will support new Siemens assays through the addition of new analytes or new control products to Bio-Rad's high quality line of independent third-party controls. Siemens has a comprehensive assay pipeline that will now have consistent control materials for optimal reliability of test results.
This partnership reflects Siemens' efforts to expand its regional footprint, which is a goal of the recently launched Siemens Agenda 2013 program. Agenda 2013 is a two-year global initiative to further strengthen the Healthcare Sector's innovative power and competitiveness. Specific measures will be implemented in four fields of action: Innovation, Competitiveness, Regional Footprint, and People Development.
Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE: BIO and BIOb) has remained at the center of scientific discovery for more than 50 years, manufacturing and distributing a broad range of products for the life science research and clinical diagnostic markets. The Company is renowned worldwide among hospitals, universities, major research institutions, as well as biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies for its commitment to quality and customer service. Founded in 1952, Bio-Rad is headquartered in Hercules, California, and serves more than 100,000 research and industry customers worldwide through its global network of operations. The Company employs over 6,800 people globally and had revenues exceeding $1.9 billion in 2010. For more information, visit www.bio-rad.com.
The Siemens Healthcare Sector is one of the world's largest suppliers to the healthcare industry and a trendsetter in medical imaging, laboratory diagnostics, medical information technology and hearing aids. Siemens offers its customers products and solutions for the entire range of patient care from a single source — from prevention and early detection to diagnosis, and on to treatment and aftercare. By optimizing clinical workflows for the most common diseases, Siemens also makes healthcare faster, better and more cost-effective. Siemens Healthcare employs some 51,000 employees worldwide and operates around the world. In fiscal year 2011 (to September 30), the Sector posted revenue of 12.5 billion euros and profit of around 1.3 billion euros. For further information please visit: www.siemens.com/healthcare.
Contacts:
Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc.
Tina Cuccia, Corporate Communications
510-741-6063
tina_cuccia@bio-rad.com
Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics
Susan Drew, Media relations
914-524-2844
susan.drew@siemens.com
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