NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Cepheid has announced a partnership agreement with Medline for distribution of the GeneXpert platform and menu of 20 approved Xpert tests in the US.
Medline, the largest privately held US healthcare products distributor, will immediately begin offering the platform to non-acute care laboratories.
The sites include "long-term care facilities with moderately complex labs, physician-office laboratories, women's health and large multi-specialty clinics, urgent care facilities, community health centers, correctional facility laboratories, student health centers, STD clinics, and reference laboratories," the firm noted in a statement.
The distribution agreement further extends Cepheid's reach "into laboratories and testing facilities outside the hospital, notably including some long-term care facilities, allowing these Medline customers to gain access to the same innovative molecular diagnostics technology that has, until now, been largely limited to hospital laboratory settings," said Peter Farrell, Cepheid's executive vice president of worldwide commercial operations.
The initial focus of the agreement will be on the firm's portfolio of moderately complex tests and its CLIA-waived influenza and respiratory syncytial virus assay. Medline will also distribute Cepheid's GeneXpert Omni products subject to their review and approval by the US Food and Drug Administration.
Earlier this year, Cepheid partnered with Henry Schein to distribute the GeneXpert to moderately complex labs in the US. Cepheid has not disclosed the terms of either deal.