Original from: 360DX

Becton Dickinson announced on Tuesday a collaboration with Magnolia Medical Technologies, under which the firms will co-sell and comarket the Magnolia Medical Steripath and Steripath Micro Initial Specimen Diversion Device, which complement the BD Vacutainer specimen collection portfolio.

Steripath is cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration and reduces blood culture contamination by sequestering the first portion of blood collected. 

In a statement, BD noted that the Steripath platform provides the only all-in-one devices clinically proven to meet the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute's 1 percent blood culture contamination goal as well as new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines to reduce blood culture contamination. 

"Sepsis is the number one cause of death, readmissions, and costs in hospitals today," said Brooke Story, president of BD's Integrated Diagnostic Solutions division. "Reducing blood culture contamination can help improve testing accuracy and ultimately improve clinical outcomes and may lessen the threat of antibiotic resistance by giving healthcare practitioners more specific, reliable results." 

Greg Bullington, CEO of Magnolia Medical, said that offering a combined technology solution with the Steripath Initial Specimen Diversion Device platform and BD Vacutainer push-button and BD Vacutainer UltraTouch blood collection aligns the firms' "shared commitment to improve patient outcomes, help hospitals achieve their quality goals, and reduce unnecessary hospital costs."

Blood culture contamination is common, occurring in approximately half of collected samples, but BD noted that 20 studies support the clinical and cost effectiveness of Steripath. All clinical studies reported sustained contamination rates of 1 percent or less using Steripath, BD said, with one study demonstrating a 31 percent reduction in days of vancomycin therapy required by patients.

Financial terms of the collaboration were not disclosed.

Source: Becton Dickinson, Magnolia Medical Technologies to Comarket Blood Culture Collection Devices