A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

MedMira (Halifax, Nova Scotia), a developer of rapid flow-through diagnostic technology, said it has won the first rapid HIV test tender in the province of Jilin in China. The tender is structured as an annual standing order through which all levels of provincial public health organizations in the province will be able to order MedMira's MiraWell Rapid HIV Test.

The company said the first shipment against this standing order is expected within the next 30 days and is estimated to be for about 100,000 tests.

Stephen Sham, chairman and CEO, said, "Although we anticipated our success in winning this public tender as part of the next step in our China marketing plan, this accomplishment has reassured us of the China government's commitment to control HIV by using only the highest-quality and best-performing rapid HIV test in the front lines of public health."

According to the Chinese National CDC 2004 evaluation report, MedMira's MiraWell Rapid HIV Test performed the best of the 10 rapid HIV tests evaluated, and was found to be as accurate as traditional testing methods.

"We anticipate that the demand for our rapid HIV test will reach new levels in 2005 as the China government continues its battle to reduce HIV transmission within its population of approximately 1.3 billion," said Sham. "We expect that many more China provinces will offer similar public tenders and we are confident that [our] test will lead this market."

MedMira has a representative office in Beijing, China.

It is estimated that 1 million Chinese are HIV-infected and that, without intervention, China can anticipate this to increase to 10 million by 2010.

Jilin, called the most urbanized province in China, is home to some 26 million people. The provincial capital, Changchun, is remembered in history as the capital of Manchukuo the puppet state established by the Japanese in 1932 after invading Manchuria in September 1931.

MedMira refers to itself as "the leading global manufacturer and marketer of in vitro flow-though rapid diagnostic tests for the clinical laboratory market." Its tests provide results in just three minutes for the detection of diseases such as HIV.

The company's Reveal G2 and MiraWell rapid HIV tests are used in clinical laboratories and hospitals where professional counseling and patient treatment are immediately available.

The MiraCare Rapid HIV Antibody Test is available over-the-counter in pharmacies throughout the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions in China.

SIRS-Lab, OGT in biochip accord

SIRS-Lab (Jena, Germany) and the Oxford Gene Technology (OGT; Oxford, UK) have reported an agreement concerning the licensing of OGT's technology for nucleotide-based biochips. The contract enables SIRS-Lab to produce biochips using the patented technology and to distribute these products, and related services, Europe-wide.

Dr. Stefan Russwurm, CEO and founder of SIRS-Lab, said, "In addition to our high-grade quality assurance, the use of nucleotide chips combines several advantages which we would like to provide to our customers. Compared to cDNA probes, nucleotides can be systematically optimized and synthesized. Thus, product development can be adapted to customer needs in a more flexible fashion."

Russwurm added that the license enables SIRS "to offer its quality products using the latest state of the art" and strengthens the company's Lab-Arraytor product line.

SIRS-Lab, first operational in 2001, makes biochip diagnostic systems for early diagnosis and therapy control of generalized inflammatory reactions and sepsis. It also offers services in genomics and proteomics as well as an application and training center for microarray analysis.

Oxford Gene Technology was founded in 1995 by Professor Edwin Southern considered one of the inventors of DNA microarrays to exploit patented technology developed in his research laboratories at Oxford University. OGT also holds patents in a number of other areas, all relating to "molecular tools" to boost the power of biological research.