Abaxis Signs Exclusive Distribution Agreement with Abbott

Abaxis, Inc. (Union City, CA, USA) signed an exclusive multiyear distribution agreement with Abbott's Point-of-Care (POC; Princeton, NJ, USA) business to market and distribute the Piccolo Xpress, a portable clinical chemistry system, and its full line of one-time user reagent discs, to the human medical market.

Abbott will have the exclusive right to distribute and sell Abaxis' Piccolo Xpress chemistry analyzer and associated consumables in the US and China (including Hong Kong). Abaxis will retain the distribution rights to current customer Catapult Health (Dallas, TX, USA) and certain segments including pharmacy and retail store clinics, shopping malls, contract research organizations (CROs), and cruise ship lines. The company will provide technical support and warranty services to support Abbott's commercial efforts.

The Piccolo Xpress provides on-the-spot chemistry results in minutes. About the size of a shoebox, health care providers use the Piccolo Xpress's easy-to-follow color touch-screen commands to perform routine multi-chemistry panels. 0.1 mL of whole blood, serum, or plasma is added directly to the single use plastic disc containing the liquid diluent and dry reagents. The disc is placed in the analyzer drawer where centrifugal and capillary forces are used to mix the reagents and sample in the disc. The Piccolo Xpress monitors the reagent reactions simultaneously using nine wavelengths, calculates the results from the absorbance data, and reports the results. The easy-to-use, low maintenance system requires no special training to operate.

Abaxis develops, manufactures, markets, and sells portable blood analysis systems for use in any human patient-care or veterinary setting to provide clinicians with rapid blood constituent measurements.

Related Links:
Abaxis
Abbott's Point-of-Care