bioMérieux Initiative to Support European Antibiotic Awareness Day

Marcy l’Etoile (France) - November 18, 2011. As the world leader in microbiology and a pioneer in diagnostics for antimicrobial resistance detection and susceptibility testing (AST), bioMérieux actively supports the annual European Antibiotic Awareness Day, organized today by the ECDC.1 bioMérieux subsidiaries throughout the world are providing educational tools for healthcare professionals to help increase public awareness about this serious issue.

Bacterial resistance to antibiotics has been recognized by the World Health Organization as one of the greatest threats to public health and its spread is expected to change the medical landscape in the near future. Driven by antibiotic misuse and overuse in the treatment of humans and animals, it has grown to alarming proportions: in the European Union, at least 25,000 people die each year from an antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection2, and the latest data confirms that the number of patients infected by resistant bacteria in Europe is rising. The emergence of pan-resistant NDM-1 bacteria and, more recently, the epidemic of multidrug-resistant E. coli infections in Europe further illustrate the seriousness of this threat, while the pipeline of new antibiotics is declining at the rate of 30% each decade.3

“bioMérieux has a long-standing commitment to drive the fight against microbial resistance and healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) through the development of dedicated diagnostic solutions and educational initiatives,” said Jean-Luc Bélingard, bioMérieux Chairman and CEO. “We are pleased to support the European Antibiotic Awareness Day and work with clinicians and microbiologists throughout the world to address this issue”.

Diagnostic tests play an essential role in curbing the spread of multidrug resistant bacteria, helping clinicians decide whether an antibiotic will cure an infection and which one will work best. They are used by microbiology laboratories, which actively participate in surveillance programs and antibiotic stewardship through screening tests, rapid diagnostic assays, resistance testing (interpretation of results and selection of antibiotics), strain typing and epidemiological surveillance. bioMérieux provides diagnostic solutions for the prevention and management of antibiotic resistance, such as
VITEK® 2, the leader in automated ID / AST and Etest®, for the determination of MICs.4

The European Antibiotic Awareness Day is the third major resistance initiative supported by bioMérieux in 2011, after World Health Day and the World HAI Forum, a bioMérieux initiative, which aims to raise awareness and promote concerted actions in the field of antimicrobial resistance and Healthcare Associated Infections. The third edition of the Forum, in June 2011, gathered over 70 experts in medicine, infectious diseases, microbiology and epidemiology from 33 countries to draft a Call to Action identifying the priority actions that must be implemented to avoid a public health crisis.

1 European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control
2 EDCD/EMEA Joint Technical Report. The bacterial challenge: time to react. 2009 EMEA/576176/2009
3 Spellberg B. Trends in Antimicrobial Drug Development: Implications for the Future CID 2004;38:1279-1286
4 Minimum Inhibitory Concentrations of antibiotics

For more information:

Watch bioMérieux’s new video: www.biomerieux.com/besmart
Hear what experts discussed at the World HAI Forum: www.hai-forum.com
Learn more about antimicrobial resistance and diagnostics: www.bioMerieux.com/hai-resistance
Find out about European Antibiotic Awareness Day: www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/EAAD

About bioMérieux

Advancing Diagnostics to Improve Public Health

A world leader in the field of in vitro diagnostics for over 45 years, bioMérieux is present in more than 150 countries through 39 subsidiaries and a large network of distributors. In 2010, revenues reached €1.357 billion with 87% of sales outside of France. bioMérieux provides diagnostic solutions (reagents, instruments, software) which determine the source of disease and contamination to improve patient health and ensure consumer safety. Its products are used for diagnosing infectious diseases and providing high medical value results for cancer screening and monitoring and cardiovascular emergencies. They are also used for detecting microorganisms in agri-food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic products. bioMérieux is listed on the NYSE Euronext Paris market (Symbol: BIM – ISIN: FR0010096479).
Other information can be found at www.biomerieux.com