MedMined and bioMerieux Sign Agreement Covering MedMined's Infection Prevention Technology

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. and DURHAM, N.C. -- MedMined, Inc. and bioMerieux, Inc. today announced an agreement whereby bioMerieux will promote and market MedMined's Virtual Surveillance service to healthcare institutions in North America.

MedMined's service uses advanced technologies to track patterns of infections both within the hospital and the community. Hospitals are able to target their prevention resources where and when they can be most effective, thereby protecting patients from deadly hospital acquired infections. These infections are responsible for approximately 88,000 deaths nationwide, making them the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S. behind heart disease, cancer and strokes.

bioMerieux's VITEK is the market leading automated antimicrobial identification and susceptibility system. The agreement complements bioMerieux's existing product lines offered to major healthcare institutions, which also include bioMerieux's BacT/ALERT, and TheraTrac 2. Data from VITEK as well as other sources are used by MedMined to track hospital-acquired infections and antibiotic resistance. Thus, MedMined makes the data from bioMerieux's products more valuable by using it to further improve patient care and reduce non-reimbursed costs.

The combination of MedMined's Virtual Surveillance service with bioMerieux's extensive expertise in infectious disease diagnosis, along with bioMerieux's North American sales network, will ensure a successful relationship in bringing new patient safety solutions to healthcare institutions while allowing both companies to improve care and reduce costs associated with these infectious disease issues.

New advances in artificial intelligence, statistics and database technology allow scientists to extract useful information from large amounts of data without pre-defined search criteria. This technology, known as "data mining," can be used to examine large volumes of healthcare data to discover patterns that are important, clinically relevant and actionable.

MedMined fuses physician-backed clinical expertise with expert data mining experience to provide information services that improve patient care and reduce healthcare costs.

Virtual Surveillance was developed over eight years of research and real-world clinical deployment. This patent-pending technology has been the subject of many peer-reviewed publications.

MedMined's co-founder, Stephen Brossette, MD, PhD, was recently named by MIT's Technology Review as one of the top 100 young innovators in the world. Further, MedMined was named the 2002 Technology Company of the Year by the National Business Incubation Association. The company has received venture capital funding and the endorsement of Child Health Corporation of America. Most importantly, MedMined has earned the business of many hospitals, including national leaders in patient safety.

bioMerieux, Inc. covers the U.S. activities of bioMerieux S.A. As a major player in the field of in vitro infectious disease diagnostics, bioMerieux designs, develops, manufactures and markets reagents and automated instruments for medical analyses and product quality control in the agri-food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries. Already present in over 130 countries, with more than 110 distributors and 32 subsidiaries, bioMerieux continues its international development by strengthening its presence in Latin America and Asia.

Source: MedMined, Inc.