Life Technologies Partners with PathoFinder B.V. to Market Respiratory Pathogen Identification Panels

Life Technologies Corporation today announced that it has reached an agreement to market certain respiratory virus and bacterial pathogen identification panels manufactured by PathoFinder B.V., a Dutch molecular diagnostic company focused on developing advanced tests targeted to infectious diseases.

The panels will be sold under the Applied Biosystems TrueScience™ RespiFinder® product line for in vitro diagnostic use.  Terms of the partnership were not disclosed.

“Molecular diagnostics tests that have the potential to speed up the detection and identification of respiratory pathogens can make a significant difference in public health,” said Todd Laird, Head of the Fragment and Sequence Genomics Business for Life Technologies.  “Our industry-leading capillary electrophoresis systems for sequencing and fragment analysis, like the 3500Dx Series Genetic Analyzers, together with PathoFinder’s assays, can help physicians make better patient care decisions.”

The Truescience™ RespiFinder® 15 and RespiFinder® 19 Pathogen Identification Panels can detect up to 19 of the most common respiratory viruses and bacteria, including influenza virus, respiratory syncitial virus, parainfluenza virus and Bordetella pertussis.  Unlike other technologies, these assays allow for a single reaction analysis of up to 19 viral and bacterial pathogens using easy to perform Fragment Analysis protocol.  In as little as seven hours, clinicians can determine if antibiotic or antiviral drugs might be effective in treating an ill patient.

Life Technologies intends to register the product for in vitro diagnostic use in most European countries, as well as in Latin America, the Asia Pacific region, Australia, New Zealand and Africa.  In France, Italy, Belgium and The Netherlands, PathoFinder or its distributors will continue selling RespiFinder products under the PathoFinder label.  The assays will not be available in the US or Canada. 

“I am excited about this agreement with Life Technologies,” said Guus Simons, CEO of PathoFinder.  “In the last few years, PathoFinder has developed a set of unique multiplex tests for the simultaneous detection of viruses and bacteria that cause respiratory tract infections.  The combination of our multiparameter tests and Life Technologies’ high quality capillary electrophoresis systems enables PathoFinder to position our products into the market much more rapidly and to address the need of clinicians for comprehensive diagnostics of respiratory tract infections.”