A Medical Device Daily
Response Biomedical (RBC; Vancouver, British Columbia) reported that it has entered into an agreement granting rights to Roche Diagnostics (Indianapolis) to market its line of cardiovascular point-of-care (POC) tests worldwide.
It said Roche Diagnostics' comprehensive sales and marketing infrastructure allows for broad worldwide penetration of Response's cardiovascular line.
The RAMP cardiovascular product line includes Troponin I, CK-MB, Myoglobin and NT-proBNP Tests. The company is awaiting FDA 510(k) clearance before the NT-proBNP Test can be sold in the U.S.
"Our collaboration with Response Biomedical Corporation is an important step to further expand our presence in the dynamically growing POC cardiac market, expecting double-digit growth over the coming years," said Dirk Ehlers, head of Roche Professional Diagnostics. "The Roche POC portfolio will be enhanced by the addition of the RAMP cardiovascular product line and will allow us to target key global markets by responding to customer demands for choice in systems for different throughput and parameter needs."
Response Biomedical develops manufactures and markets rapid on-site diagnostic tests for use with its RAMP Platform for clinical and environmental applications.
Roche is one of the world's leading research-focused healthcare groups in the fields of pharmaceuticals and diagnostics.
In other grants/contracts news:
• Tenet Healthcare (Dallas) reported that it has signed a multi-year agreement with MultiPlan (New York) that includes participation in both the MultiPlan and PHCS (formerly Private Healthcare Systems) networks.
The agreement includes all Tenet hospitals, outpatient and ambulatory care centers beginning July 1. Contracts for employed physicians will be finalized in the coming weeks.
Tenet has reported several national contracts with major payors for all its hospitals and outpatient facilities in the past year, including UnitedHealthcare (Minnetonka, Minnesota) Aetna (Hartford Connecticut) and Cigna (Philadelphia).
Tenet Healthcare, through its subsidiaries, owns and operates acute-care hospitals and related healthcare businesses, including ambulatory surgery centers and diagnostic imaging centers.
• Premier Purchasing Partners (Charlotte, North Carolina) reported new agreements for moving services have been awarded to Atlas Van Lines (Evansville, Indiana); Beltmann Group (Roseville, Minnesota); Graebel Van Lines (Aurora, Colorado); and S & D Transfer Logistics (Cranbury, New Jersey).
Premier reported new agreements for laryngoscope systems have been awarded to Smiths Medical ASD (Rockland, Massachusetts) and Vital Signs (Totowa, New Jersey).
The 36-month contracts, effective Aug. 1, are available to all acute-care and continuum-of-care members of the Premier healthcare alliance.
Premier also reported new agreements for pulmonary function and metabolic analyzers have been awarded to Cardinal Health (Dublin, Ohio) and nSpire Health (Longmont, Colorado). The 36-month contracts, effective July 1, are available to all acute-care and continuum-of-care members of the Premier healthcare alliance.
• Southern Home Medical Equipment (Lyman, South Carolina) reported that its subsidiary, Encore Medical Staffing (Greenville, South Carolina), has completed its seventh staffing agreement and is aggressively filling supplementary and contractual shifts.
Greg Tucker, president/CEO of parent company Southern Home Medical, said, "This market is doing extremely well. The Greenville team has far exceeded their own expectations in their second full month of operations. The level of activity in June has been stunning. This group has over 26 years of collective experience and it shows in their performance thus far."
Southern Home Medical is a holding company with a focus on nurse staffing operations.