NEW YORK (360Dx) – Chembio Diagnostics announced today that it has signed an agreement to commercialize its point-of-care tests for Dengue, Zika, and Chikungunya infection in Brazil with Bio-Manguinhos.
Bio-Manguinhos is a subsidiary of Brazil's Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, a government agency tasked with the development and production of vaccines, reagents, and biopharmaceuticals for public health use. Bio-Manguinhos began collaborating with Chembio in 2016 to develop standalone and multiplex tests for the viruses using the company's Dual Path Platform (DPP) chromatographic immunoassay technology, which can detect antibodies within 15 minutes using fingerstick samples.
"We are pleased to announce a long-term agreement with Bio-Manguinhos, which is an important step toward commercializing the DPP Dengue, Zika, and Chikungunya tests in Brazil," Chembio CEO John Sperzel said in a statement.
Late last year, Chembio received an $8.5 million purchase commitment from Bio-Manguinhos for test components for the production of its DPP HIV and Leishmania assays.