NEW YORK (360Dx) – HP said today that it is participating in a pilot program run by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that aims to accelerate testing of new antibiotics designed to fight antimicrobial-resistant bacteria.
As part of the pilot program, CDC will deploy HP D300e Digital Dispenser BioPrinters to four regional labs in its Antibiotic Resistance Lab Network, a group of labs that supplement local and state public health laboratories in the identification and research of antibiotic resistance to develop antimicrobial susceptibility test methods for new drugs.
As a result of the program, regional labs will be able to conduct rapid susceptibility testing for health departments and hospitals nationwide, HP said.
Financial and other terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Jean Patel, science team lead of the Antibiotic Resistance Coordination and Strategy Unit at CDC, said in a statement that in the context of testing for antibiotic resistance that saves lives, making technology accessible to hospital labs nationwide is vital. "We hope this pilot will help ensure our newest drugs last longer and put gold-standard lab results in healthcare providers' hands faster," she said.
HP said that its printer helps to speed testing availability at the local level by printing gold-standard test plates in a few minutes. The HP BioPrinter dispenses picoliters to microliters of small molecules and biomolecules to enable drug discovery, genomics, and proteomics research, the firm said.
Testing through CDC will be implemented in the regional labs in the first quarter of fiscal-year 2019. Labs in New York, Minnesota, Tennessee, and Wisconsin within the Antibiotic Resistance Lab Network will begin using the technology to develop and perform antimicrobial susceptibility testing for new drugs. The CDC will prioritize testing for highly resistant bacteria and make pan-resistant organisms a top priority.
HP will coordinate with CDC to evaluate the pilot in the regional labs, and then refine the system and explore and support a larger rollout of inkjet printing technology in labs nationwide, the firm said.