20-06-2011. Neogen Corporation (NASDAQ: NEOG) announced today that it has acquired the assets of the VeroMara seafood testing laboratory from its parent company, GlycoMar Ltd. Based in Oban, Scotland, VeroMara offers testing services to the shellfish and salmon aquaculture industries. VeroMara’s services include testing for shellfish toxins, general foodborne pathogens, including E. coli, noroviruses, and salmon husbandry. VeroMara recorded revenues of approximately $800,000 (U.S.) in its most recently completed fiscal year. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

“The acquisition of VeroMara deepens Neogen’s advancement into the aquatic sciences,” said James Herbert, Neogen’s CEO and chairman. “VeroMara’s services are complementary and a nice fit with our existing product lines for the seafood industry, including one of our biggest food safety diagnostic products — our histamine tests for the tuna industry. The VeroMara purchase also provides Neogen with key collaborative relationships with influential aquaculture partners, and increased access to important international markets. “Our new operation in Oban will work in close cooperation with our Neogen Europe headquarters in Ayr, Scotland, providing expanded products and services to a larger customer base,” Herbert continued. “Our sales and marketing operations in Ayr have the capability to expand VeroMara’s business to several other European countries.” “The sale of our VeroMara testing service allows GlycoMar to focus on our core business — marine natural product research and development,” said Dr. Charles Bavington, GlycoMar’s managing director. “We are pleased to have VeroMara join Neogen, a company we respect as being one of the world leaders in food safety. This transition will guarantee uninterrupted quality service to our customers.”

In addition to its comprehensive line of rapid foodborne pathogen, sanitation monitoring and histamine tests that it offers the seafood industry, Neogen recently released rapid tests to detect toxins in shellfish that cause amnesic shellfish poisoning (ASP) and diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP). The detection of ASP and DSP toxins has been a key service VeroMara has offered its customers. Neogen Corporation develops and markets products dedicated to food and animal safety. The company’s Food Safety Division markets dehydrated culture media, and diagnostic test kits to detect foodborne bacteria, natural toxins, genetic modifications, food allergens, drug residues, plant diseases and sanitation concerns. Neogen’s Animal Safety Division markets a complete line of diagnostics, veterinary instruments, veterinary pharmaceuticals, nutritional supplements, disinfectants, and rodenticides.

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Wolf G Kroner

Darmstadt, 13-12-2010. Merck Serono’s Chief Executive Officer and General Partner of Merck KGaA is resigning from his duties for ”personal reasons” end of year, his company told in a press release today. The leave of Mr. Schnee comes as surprise given his continued merits in profitably streamlining Merck’s pharma divisions and changing Serono’s culture of youthful impetuosity to a more sustainable one embodied by the Merck family. He is followed by Stefan J. Oschmann who has been lately President of Emerging Markets of Merck & Co, and will move from MSD’s headquarters at Whitehouse Station, New Jersey (US) to Darmstadt beginning January 2011.

Mr. Schnee (51) is a marketing veteran in the pharmaceutical industry where we worked with Fisons Pharmaceutical, Sanofi-Synthélabo, and UCB Pharma before joining Merck in 2003. He started as Managing Director of Merck Santé SAS at Lyon (FR) with responsibilities to commercialise Merck’s prescription medicines and managing distribution alliances. Since 2006 he is General Partner of Merck KGaA. In the group he is responsible for the pharmaceutical business including consumer healthcare. Currently, one of Mr. Schnee’s very few external duties is with ChemGenex Pharmaceuticals (ASX: CXS; American Depository receipts: CXSPY). Since 2007 he is Director of Board of this company and the architect of acquiring shares for Merck. With 8.49% Merck Santé is CXS’ third largest shareholder. This has raised questions, how the resignation will affect ChemGenex.

Chemgenex is rapidly approaching the market stage and aims for a global reach. Its most advanced drug candidate is omacetaxine mepesuccinate (trade name: OMAPRO) for patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). It is directed to Philadelphia chromosome positive chronic myeloid leukaemia in patients who have the T315I Bcr-Abl kinase domain mutation and who are resistant to prior therapy of Novartis’ imatinib (trade name: Glivec). In fall 2008 the company already established European operations at Lyon to pursue EU marketing authorisation of OMAPRO and has received an orphan drug designation meanwhile. With expectations of approval by EMEA ChemGenex has entered with Hospira into a marketing agreement for Europe, the Middle East and parts of Africa in December 2009. In the United States ChemGenex intends to commercialise itself the drug. However, in March it experienced a setback in the US as an FDA advisory committee recommended submission of ”a well characterized” diagnostic test instead of the ones used in previous trials in order to identify patients with the mutation prior to approval of the drug. In this situation CXS is to benefit more than ever from Elmar Schnee’s advice as he “will continue to support Chemgenex on the board of directors”, at least during the next 12 months Dr Greg Collier, the company’s CEO told B2Bioworld.
 
Given the abrupt departure in conjunction with the rapid nomination of Dr. Oschmann to Mr. Schnee’s post, observers say, that the present resignation might be more related to internal dynamics of Merck than to external companies, a view which Mr. Schnee is confirming. Asked about his plans, in particular with regard to Chemgenex Pharmaceuticals, he told B2Bioworld: ”I will have to take it apart, if I have a moment to spare. Up to now I have been fully occupied, and then, we’ll see.”

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Easy-to-use molecular test offers faster results to help healthcare facilities control spread of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)

09-07-2010. Roche Molecular Systems, Inc. (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) announced today that the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) cleared its new LightCycler® MRSA Advanced Test for the detection of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) for clinical use in the United States. The LightCycler® MRSA Advanced Test is a qualitative in-vitro diagnostic test for the direct detection of nasal colonization with bacterial MRSA, and it is designed to aid in the prevention and control of MRSA infections in healthcare settings. Roche’s new real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test delivers rapid results (within two hours) and appears to have better sensitivity compared to direct culture-based methods.
"It is important that healthcare professionals have access to MRSA testing technology that provides rapid and reliable results, allowing faster implementation of appropriate infection control measures,” said Paul Brown, Ph.D., president and CEO, Roche Molecular Diagnostics. “Roche’s new LightCycler® MRSA Advanced Test is designed to offer a simple, flexible, and reliable method for MRSA screening to support hospitals in the prevention of MRSA infections.”
High rates of infection, mortality, and high costs of treatment due to healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) caused by MRSA are a critical issue for healthcare facilities worldwide. In addition, community-associated MRSA (CA-MRSA) infection has spread in the U.S., feeding the pipeline of infection in hospitals, and underscoring the need for comprehensive infection control programs along with more rapid and reliable MRSA screening methods. In response to this public health issue, an increasing number of states have passed legislation requiring mandatory reporting and/or screening for HAI’s.
“The introduction of this new advanced test will expand the options healthcare facilities have for MRSA screening using molecular diagnostic methods,” said Lance Peterson, M.D., FASCP, epidemiologist and a founder of the MRSA screening program at NorthShore University HealthSystem in Evanston, Illinois. “The test showed good sensitivity with minimal hands-on time. Technicians now have the ability to have flexible batch sizes which could make it the cost-effective choice for many hospital laboratories.”

About methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a type of bacterium that is resistant to certain antibiotics, such as methicillin, oxacillin, penicillin and amoxicillin. Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most frequently isolated bacteria from patients with healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). Estimates suggest that 2 million HAIs and 90,000 deaths are attributable to these infections each year in the U.S., and that between 5% and 10% of inpatients in U.S. hospitals acquire an HAI. (1) 
Antimicrobial resistance and HAIs, either combined or separately, constitute a major infectious disease problem in the U.S. and show signs of becoming more prevalent in the future. MRSA infections are a tremendous burden for healthcare systems and hospitals and are associated with significant healthcare costs. In 2007, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that HAIs were responsible for $4.5 to $5.7 billion in added healthcare costs each year.(1)  Experts generally believe that at least 20-30% of such infections are preventable, and molecular-based diagnostic tests to detect HAIs offer faster, sensitive methods to detect infections and prevent their spread. In the U.S. it is estimated that the market for molecular-based MRSA screening is estimated to be worth approximately $125 million in 2010 and growing at 20% per annum.

References:
1 http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dhqp/pdf/hicpac/infections_deaths.pdf. Public Health Reports, March-April 2007. Accessed July 2009.

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Disclaimer: You agree that B2Bioworld is not responsible and will not be held liable for any third party content on its sites or any third-party content, products or services available on other web sites accessed through links from B2Bioworld sites. Links to third-party sites are for your convenience only, and their inclusion on B2Bioworld's sites does not imply any endorsement, guarantee, warranty or representation by B2Bioworld.