NEW YORK (360Dx) – Diagnostica Stago will distribute in the US Akers Biosciences' rapid test for heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) as part of deal announced today by the companies.
Stago will market and sell Akers Bio's' PIFA PLUSS RF4 Rapid Assay, a single-use test using whole blood sample for detecting platelet factor 4 antibodies, to its broad base of hospital laboratories. The test is for determining in less than one hour at or near the point of care, whether a patient being treated with the blood thinner heparin may be developing HIT, a clinical syndrome that reverses the drug's intended therapeutic effect, transforming heparin into a clotting agent.
Patients developing HIT are at danger of limb- and life-threatening complications, and according to the two companies, about 4 million HIT tests are conducted in the US each year using slower traditional methods. Akers Bio plans to replace a "significant portion" of these tests with the PIFA PLUSS RF4 Rapid Assay, it said.
Akers Bio CEO John Gormally said in a statement that the deal provides the firm with a "dedicated and specialized sales team who are focused exclusively on buyers of hemostasis-related products."
Financial and other details of the three-year agreement were not disclosed.