Palex to distribute MDI's Detect-Ready MRSA assay in Spain

Molecular Detection Inc. (MDI), a company developing Detect-Ready™ assays designed to increase the speed and accuracy of infectious disease diagnosis, and Palex Medical S.A., one of Spain's leading distributors of medical device and diagnostic products to hospitals, today announced that they have entered into an exclusive distribution agreement for MDI's Detect-Ready™ MRSA assay in Spain.  Palex Medical is a leading independent distributor of a wide range of medical products including clinical diagnostics, consumables and specialized surgical tools.  The Detect-Ready™ MRSA assay offers healthcare providers a high-performance MRSA screening test with an unmatched combination of accuracy, speed, flexibility and cost-effectiveness.  Palex recently launched the Detect-Ready™ MRSA assay into the Spanish market.

"Our Detect-Ready™ MRSA assay offers important advantages to the growing market for MRSA screening, and we are pleased to partner with Palex Medical for distribution to the important Spanish market," said Todd Wallach, CEO of MDI.  "Palex has decades of experience as a leading distributor of innovative products to medical centers across Spain.  Their reputation for expert customer service and operational excellence, along with their extensive customer network at leading hospitals, will be major assets in driving adoption of our MRSA assay."

Drug-resistant, potentially deadly MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) infections are a growing problem in healthcare facilities around the world.  The Detect-Ready™ MRSA kit is a qualitative real-time PCR (rt-PCR) in vitro diagnostic test for the direct detection of MRSA nasal colonization to aid in the prevention and control of MRSA infections in hospitals and other healthcare settings.  The proprietary technology in the Detect-Ready™ kits provides a unique differential diagnosis engine that produces highly accurate results, minimizing the false positives and false negatives experienced with other MRSA screening kits.  Samples for testing are simple to obtain using nasal swabs, and the assay's ready-to-use pre-mixed reagents require only the addition of patient sample to run the test, which provides results in less than three hours.  

"Spain is introducing proactive control programs to combat the major problem that MRSA infections pose to health facilities worldwide, and we believe that the combination of accuracy, speed, versatility and cost-effectiveness of the Detect-Ready™ MRSA assay will contribute to the success of these efforts," said Josep Maria Espinalt, General Manager of Palex Medical S.A.  "Our dedicated team of highly skilled professionals is committed to bringing our expertise and infrastructure to help ensure the clinical and commercial success of the Detect-Ready™ MRSA assay in Spain."

Unlike other testing products that require special handling, Detect-Ready™ kits are off-the-shelf room temperature-stabilized and require no refrigeration.  Detect-Ready™ kits are compatible with multiple rt-PCR platforms currently found in clinical laboratories, including the Roche LightCycler®, Qiagen Rotor-Gene® and Cepheid SmartCycler®.  The flexibility to leverage existing infrastructure and equipment to run Detect-Ready™ assays eliminates the need for additional hospital capital investment.  

The Detect-Ready™ MRSA assay kit has received the CE mark certification for sale in the European Union.  The Detect-Ready™ MRSA assay is also available in Germany, the UK, Ireland, Switzerland and Austria.