Paid advertisement by bioMérieux.  

A family-owned company, bioMérieux has grown to become a pioneering leader in the field of in vitro diagnostics. With a new $90 million North American headquarters in Salt Lake City – the bioscience firm has nearly 3,000 local team members driven daily by an unrelenting commitment to improve public health worldwide.

Innovation is one of the core pillars of bioMérieux’s growth strategy, rooted in a longstanding entrepreneurial tradition. For nearly 60 years, the company has been innovating to drive progress in pathogen detection and identification. 

“Infectious diseases are one of the major threats to humankind. Their emergence and spread are dramatically accelerated by climate change and globalization,” said Andrew Hemmert, PhD, SVP, Molecular BIOFIRE® R&D and Programs. “The risk of finding ourselves unarmed to face ultra-resistant bacteria is now a reality. Diagnostics is a game changer in this fight. By innovating diagnostic solutions, we help clinicians improve patient care and we help industries prevent contamination of the food and pharmaceuticals they produce.”

bioMérieux’s R&D teams combine their knowledge of medicine with emerging techniques and new technologies to combat infectious diseases worldwide. At bioMérieux, innovation aims to reach two priority goals:

1. Increase the medical and predictive value of the results delivered by diagnostic tests.
2. Improve laboratory workflow and optimize their overall operational performance.

As an example, in May 2022 bioMérieux received De Novo authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration for its SLC-developed BIOFIRE® Joint Infection Panel. This panel tests for 31 pathogens implicated in most acute joint infections, and also includes 8 antimicrobial resistance genes to optimize antibiotic therapy and stewardship.

Joint infections (“septic arthritis”) are serious infections involving either native or prosthetic joints. They are medical emergencies which can occur at all ages, and can lead to functional joint impairment, long-lasting disability, and may even be life-threatening. The number of prosthetic joint infections is rising globally as the number of joint replacements increases.

Added Hemmert, “The BIOFIRE® Joint Infection Panel should provide clinicians with a faster and more accurate diagnosis, thus potentially reducing the delay to initiate appropriate antimicrobial therapy, speeding up surgical decision-making, and improving overall management to benefit patients and improve outcomes. This De Novo authorization demonstrates bioMérieux’s continued innovative leadership in molecular syndromic testing and our commitment to addressing vital needs in infectious disease diagnostics.”

bioMérieux world-wide facts at-a-glance

• €3,376m Annual Sales FY21
• 14 R&D Centers Worldwide
• 11.5 percent of sales reinvested in R&D
• Operations in 45 countries
• Customers in more than 160 countries
• 13,000 employees