Capital Health of Alberta to use PerkinElmer Tools for Newborn Screening Program

PerkinElmer, Inc. has announced a multi-year, multi-million dollar agreement with Capital Health in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, that provides instruments, reagents, software and screening expertise to enhance its neonatal screening program. The expanded program, which now includes screening for 17 metabolic conditions in newborns, began province-wide on April 1, 2007.

Under the terms of the agreement, signed in the second half of 2006, Capital Health has purchased tandem mass spectrometry systems, reagent kits and PerkinElmer's Specimen Gate® screening software to expand Alberta's newborn screening for inherited metabolic disorders (IMDs) including cystic fibrosis. Alberta is the first province in Canada to screen all newborns for cystic fibrosis.

"We are pleased to partner with Capital Health to support its state-of-the-art newborn screening program," said Robert F. Friel, president of PerkinElmer Life and Analytical Sciences. "PerkinElmer's leading technology is designed to allow these early detection programs to identify infants at risk for devastating metabolic disorders, enabling early intervention and treatment to save lives and improve quality of life."

Capital Health's Laboratory at the University of Alberta Hospital provides neonatal screening services for approximately 42,000 babies born in Alberta annually.