Axis-Shield in US deal for key sepsis product

MEDICAL testing kit maker Axis-Shield has signed a deal with New York-listed Bio-Rad Laboratories to commercialise one of the Dundee firm's products.

The company wants to use its "heparin binding protein" (HBP) as a marker to detect if patients have sepsis, an extreme form of septicaemia or blood poisoning.

Current tests for the condition - which affects about eight million people a year in the western world - are said to be unreliable.

Severe cases of sepsis kill more than 220,000 people each year in the United States alone.

Axis-Shield - which is due to issue a pre-close update on Monday - did not disclosed financial terms for the contract, which is the second it has signed for HBP.

Turnover rose from 85.3m in 2008 to 96.7m in 2009, with underlying profits increasing from 44.4m to 52.9m. At the interim stage in the current financial year, revenue edged ahead by 2.8 per cent to 50.9m, but profits fell from 3.6m to 2.8m following a "quiet" flu season.

Chief executive Ian Gilham said: "We are pleased to have signed another agreement for this exciting marker and look forward to working with Bio-Rad to further define the clinical utility of HBP as a key marker of severe sepsis.

"Our programme to establish this is underway and we hope that the participation of Bio-Rad will accelerate commercialisation of this diagnostic test."

Axis-Shield bought the exclusive rights to develop HBP in June 2009 from Swedish company Hansa Medical.