NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Qiagen announced after the close of the market on Monday that Cardinal Health will make Qiagen's molecular diagnostics products available to small and mid-sized hospitals in the US not covered by Qiagen's own sales channels.
Based in Dublin, Ohio, Cardinal Health distributes pharmaceuticals and medical products to healthcare providers and has annual sales of $103 billion.
The deal is anticipated to create critical mass for the distribution of molecular diagnostic products to the approximately 5,000 community hospitals in the US, "thereby supporting the adoption of in-house molecular diagnostic testing among smaller US hospitals," Qiagen said in a statement.
Citing statistics from the American Hospital Association, Qiagen said that only about 10 percent of US hospitals perform molecular diagnostics.
"We are very excited about this relationship with Cardinal Health, as we expect to create access to Qiagen products for hospitals of all sizes, where before they were primarily available to large hospitals and reference laboratories," Bernd Uder, senior vice president of global sales for Qiagen, said in a statement.
Qiagen said it will provide application and technical support to Cardinal Health customers.
Financial and other terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Molecular diagnostics products available in the US from Qiagen include its Rotor-Gene Q MDx platform, which was recently cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration, along with the artus Influenza A/B assay. The company intends to obtain FDA approval for the entire QIAsymphony RGQ system, including the Rotor Gene Q series instruments and a pipeline of corresponding tests under development.
Last week, Qiagen announced that revenues for its first quarter rose 12 percent year over year.