bioMerieux clinches MicroStreak technology:
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
French in vitro diagnostics company bioMerieux has clinched an exclusive worldwide licence for MicroStreak, a fully-automated pre-poured media (PPM) streaker used in microbiology labs. The robotic system, developed by Australia's LabTech Systems, is used to replace the manual and time-consuming task of streaking the agar plates before they are sent for analysis. The MicroStreaker, which is at an advanced stage of development, will be launched in 2008, with the US and Europe as bioMerieux's primary target markets, a company spokesperson told Clinica. She added that the addition of MicroStreak to bioMerieux's current PPM portfolio would be "positive and synergistic". Under the terms of the licensing agreement, the Marcy L'Etoile firm will pay LabTech an upfront fee of E2m ($2.7m) and a further E5m in milestone payments. The companies have also agreed on minimum royalties for certain regions.