bioMérieux and COPAN form alliance to automate clinical microbiology laboratories and enhance operational efficiency

bioMérieux and COPAN have signed a strategic partnership in clinical microbiology laboratory automation. Under the terms of the agreement, COPAN has granted distribution rights for its automated platforms (including the WASP Walk-Away Specimen Processor and the WASPLab solutions, which automate microbiology laboratory tasks and provide digital imaging and analysis) to bioMérieux. This agreement allows bioMérieux to speed up deployment of its “FMLA – Lab Efficiency*” vision for the automation and enhanced operational efficiency of clinical microbiology labs. In this field, the two companies also plan to collaborate in particular for the development of innovative clinical microbiology diagnostic solutions.

This agreement combines COPAN’s expertise in pre-analytics with bioMérieux’s expertise in microbiological diagnostics. Since January 1, 2015, bioMérieux has been COPAN’s exclusive distributor in France, and a co-exclusive distributor in Germany and the United Kingdom to distribute COPAN’s WASP and WASPLab systems. bioMérieux’s commercialization rights will gradually be expanded, on the basis of co-exclusive distribution, to a number of key countries. WASP and WASPLab will enrich bioMérieux’s range of automated solutions, including BacT/ALERT and VIRTUO blood culture systems, as well as VITEK 2 and VITEK MS for bacterial identification and automated antibiotic susceptibility testing.

This agreement is part of bioMérieux’s “FMLA” vision, renamed “Lab Efficiency.” The “bioMérieux-COPAN” offering combines fully automated, modular, and flexible diagnostic solutions. Its roll-out is based on an audit of workflows using the LeanSigma method and on Myla innovative middleware for the connection between instruments, the management of microbiology laboratory workflows, and the centralization of the necessary information to interpret results.