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OpGen Partners With NYS DOH, Merck Subsidiary for Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – OpGen announced today it has partnered with the New York State Department of Health and Ilúm Health Solutions, a subsidiary of Merck's Healthcare Services and Solutions, to build an antimicrobial resistance tracking tool for the state healthcare system.

OpGen will receive a $1.5 million contract for a 12-month demonstration portion of the project, according to a statement, with potential for full implementation during the next five years, depending on meeting certain milestones. Further terms of the partnership were not disclosed

The project will bring an OpGen gene panel and software solution to NY state healthcare institutions statewide. The firm will work with the NYS DOH Wadsworth Center and Ilúm to create a platform connecting institutions to DOH for surveillance.

Specifically, Wadsworth will deploy the recently-launched OpGen Acuitas AMR Gene Panel u5.47, an assay for common causes of urinary tract infections as well as 47 gene targets that indicate antibiotic resistance, and the OpGen Acuitas Lighthouse Software. OpGen signed a deal last year with Thermo Fisher to develop these tests using the QuantStudio 5 RT-PCR systems, and, more recently, an agreement to use TaqMan technologies.

The project will also utilize Ilúm's Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) technology platform which assembles and streams analyzed health data — such as lab results, pharmacy information, admissions, discharges, and transfers — from across locations and healthcare systems. It can also be used for patient monitoring, and can provide actionable insights to help quality improvement, disease surveillance, and pathway adherence.

"We are proud to be a part of this groundbreaking initiative throughout the State of New York, and to collaborate with Wadsworth and Ilúm to help develop the blueprint for how governments and healthcare facilities can detect, track, and manage antimicrobial-resistant infections," OpGen CEO Evan Jones said in a statement.