A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

etrials (Morrisville, North Carolina) reported a partnership between Roche Diagnostics’ (Basel, Switzerland) Accucheck blood glucose meters and etrial’s eDiary solution.

With this partnership, patients with diabetes participating in clinical trials can now seamlessly transmit vital glucose meter data into the etrials eDiary solution using wireless infrared ports located on both devices.

Historically, patients who use blood glucose meters have been required to manually report their clinical data on paper, increasing the risks of patient transcription errors and limiting immediate data analysis. However, now with the use of an eDiary solution, reported patient data can be immediately communicated back to study investigators and sponsors for analysis and evaluation.

“We are excited to partner with etrials by providing additional data-collection options for diabetes clinical trials,” said Nancy Lonsinger, vice president of Diabetes Care Marketing at Roche Diagnostics. “Accuchek meters, the global leader in blood glucose monitoring, will now transmit data via infrared connection to the etrials eDiary in order to improve data collection.”

etrials has extensive experience in clinical trials for diabetes; its solutions have powered global trials in all clinical phases for treatments and devices. In total, etrials has participated in diabetes trials involving more than 90,000 subjects at more than 3,000 sites.

Roche Diagnostics develops pharmaceutical and diagnostic products.

In other agreement activity:

• OraSure Technologies (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) reported an agreement for the supply of its OraQuick Rapid HIV-1/2 antibody test to the Supply Chain Management System (“SCMS”). Created with funds from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), SCMS procures essential medicines, diagnostic tests and other supplies for the prevention and treatment of HIV for distribution to developing countries supported by PEPFAR. Under the terms of the new agreement, SCMS may purchase the OraQuick test for an initial one-year period and an optional second year.

“The execution of an agreement with SCMS is an important development for several reasons,” said Douglas Michels, president/CEO of OraSure. “This agreement will allow PEPFAR countries to access the efficiencies of the consolidated supply chain managed by SCMS in order to obtain our OraQuick test. In addition, this agreement will provide a vehicle for expanding our efforts to make the OraQuick test more widely available internationally and in particular in developing countries supported by PEPFAR. We are committed to working with SCMS and other international agencies to make rapid HIV testing as widely available as possible around the world.”

PEPFAR is a five-year, $15 billion program established in 2003 by President George W. Bush to combat HIV/AIDS on a global basis. Through PEPFAR, the U.S. Government works with international, national and local leaders to support a multi-faceted and integrated approach to HIV prevention, treatment and patient care.

OraSure develops, oral fluid specimen collection devices using patented oral fluid technologies, diagnostic products including immunoassays and other in vitro diagnostic tests, and other medical devices.

• Vitrolife (Kungsbacka, Sweden) and Scan-Med (Omaha, Nebraska) have signed an agreement whereby Vitrolife fully assumes distribution of Swemed (Gothenburg, Sweden) products in North America.

Since 1985, Scan-Med has been responsible for marketing and distribution of Swemed instruments in North America. With the $8 million acquisition of Swemed by Vitrolife in January 2006, Scan-Med and Vitrolife entered into a transitional distribution agreement to allow for full integration of the instrument products into Vitrolife’s U.S. market and distribution organization in Denver.

The consolidation of the sales activities of the former Swemed and Vitrolife product portfolios is a process Vitrolife said it has been driving worldwide since the acquisition of Swemed, with the aim of using its own market organization in key markets.

Vitrolife is a global biotechnology/medical device group that develops systems for the preparation, cultivation and storage of human cells, tissue and organs.

Scan-Med designs MRI technology.