Mason,
I'll provide a full report upon my return. My observations of the J&J folks may not disclose much unless I attend the opening day as any novelty may decrease over time.
You may find this snip interesting.....
"Immucor is a participant in the immunohematology industry, which generally seeks to prevent or cure certain diseases or conditions through the transfusion of blood and blood components.
The company makes and sells a complete line of more than 60 reagents and systems used primarily by hospitals and blood banks in a number of tests performed prior to blood transfusions. The tests are used for grouping and typing donor and patient blood, detection and identification of blood group and platelet antibodies, paternity testing, and routine prenatal care. Through a German subsidiary, BLUD sells HLA products used in human organ transplantation and DNA probes used in paternity testing. Through an Italian unit, the company tests for certain infectious diseases and clinical chemistry reagents.
Because of the critical importance of matching patient and donor blood, compatibility testing procedures are generally performed manually by highly trained technologists in hospitals, blood banks and laboratories. The company believes that the performance of these tests can be significantly improved using its proprietary solid-phase test system. In its system, one of the reactants (either an antigen or an antibody) is applied and bound to a solid support, such as a well in a microtitration plate. During testing, the bound reactant captures other reactants in a fluid state and binds those fluid reactants to the solid phase.
BLUD sells three test systems: a platelet antibody detection system (Capture-P), a red cell antibody detection system (Capture-R), and an infectious disease test (Capture-CMV). The company also distributes lab equipment used to automate blood test procedures.
The company has developed an automated blood bank instrument (the ABS2000) with Bio-Tek Instruments, Inc., to perform blood compatibility tests that are currently done manually by hospital blood bank technologies. The ABS2000, the first fully automated, walk-away instrument for the hospital blood bank transfusion laboratory, is currently marketed in Canada and Europe and was recently cleared for sale in the U.S.
In September 1997, BLUD amended its preferred supplier agreement with the University Hospital Consortium (UHC), adding the Biometric Imaging product line to the existing contract, and letting UHC affiliated hospitals purchase products at a discount.
In March 1998, the company announced an agreement with IBG Systems Ltd., a U.K.-based manufacturer and distributor of semi-automated blood grouping instrumentation in Europe and North America. Under the agreement, BLUD would market and support all current and future IBG products in North America. IBG currently has the only semi-automated microtitration plate reader available for sale in the U.S. to read and interpret BLUD's proprietary solid phase Capture assays."
Regards,
Tom |
