OpGen Partnering with New York State Department of Health and Merck’s ILÚM Health Solutions to Detect Antimicrobial-Resist...
September 24 2018 - 9:26AM
OpGen, Inc. (Nasdaq: OPGN) announced today a
groundbreaking collaboration with the New York State Department of
Health (“DOH”) and ILÚM Health Solutions, LLC (“ILÚM”), a wholly
owned subsidiary of Merck’s Healthcare Services and Solutions, to
develop a state-of-the-art research program to detect, track, and
manage antimicrobial-resistant infections at healthcare
institutions statewide. OpGen will work together with DOH’s
Wadsworth Center and ILÚM to develop an infectious disease digital
health and precision medicine platform that connects healthcare
institutions to DOH and uses genomic microbiology for statewide
surveillance and control of antimicrobial resistance.
The DOH, ILÚM and OpGen will work
collaboratively to build a sustainable, flexible infectious
diseases reporting, tracking and surveillance tool for
antimicrobial resistance that can be applied across New York State.
The goal of this project is to improve patient outcomes and save
healthcare dollars by integrating real-time epidemiologic
surveillance with rapid delivery of resistance results to
care-givers via web-based and mobile platforms. ILÚM is leading the
project with the implementation of its technology platform. OpGen
is providing its Acuitas® AMR Gene Panel for rapid detection of
multidrug-resistant bacterial pathogens along with its Acuitas
Lighthouse® Software for high resolution pathogen tracking.
“We are proud to be a part of this
groundbreaking initiative throughout the State of New York, and to
collaborate with Wadsworth and ILÚM to help develop the blueprint
for how governments and healthcare facilities can detect, track,
and manage antimicrobial-resistant infections,” said Evan Jones,
CEO, OpGen. “As part of the collaboration, OpGen will receive a
$1.5 million contract for the 12-month demonstration portion of the
project, with the potential for full implementation during the next
five years, should certain milestones be achieved by all parties
involved. We look forward to working with the Wadsworth
Laboratories and to serving the people of the State of New
York.”
The precision medicine solutions provided by OpGen and ILÚM to
accomplish the goals of the project are:
- The OpGen Acuitas AMR Gene Panel
u.5.47, a distributed, rapid diagnostics platform capable of
detection and identification of multidrug-resistant bacterial
pathogens in under three hours and for use with the Acuitas
Lighthouse Software. Together, these products can rapidly
identify and locate antibiotic resistance threats in healthcare
institutions and networks. Both systems are commercially
available for Research Use Only (RUO) and are anticipated to be
submitted for FDA clearance after completion of ongoing and planned
clinical trials. In future iterations, OpGen’s Acuitas technologies
are anticipated to provide custom testing solutions to supplement
evolving Wadsworth Laboratory testing and New York State’s DOH
surveillance needs.
- The OpGen Acuitas Lighthouse
Software includes Acuitas Lighthouse epidemiology dashboards with
high-resolution pathogen tracking through healthcare facilities, to
cities, regions, as well as the entire state.
- ILÚM’s technology platform, a
Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) solution which assembles and
streams analyzed health data from across locations and health care
systems. This data includes laboratory test results, pharmacy,
orders, and ADT (admissions, discharges, transfers). The platform
offers patient and program-specific data analytics and
visualization capabilities to users via a web application and a
mobile device application. Also, it enables case browsing,
patient monitoring, detection and prioritization and performance
monitoring and reporting for disease management, including
actionable insights in support of quality improvement efforts,
disease surveillance, pathway adherence, and ultimately impacting
outcomes.
New York State Health Commissioner Dr. Howard A.
Zucker said, "Under Governor Cuomo's leadership, New York State is
setting the standard in addressing the threat of antimicrobial
resistance. New York's Wadsworth Center is uniquely qualified
to partner with OpGen and ILÚM Health Solutions as part of our
response to this public health concern."
About Antimicrobial-resistant
InfectionsThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
estimates that annually in the United States we face 2 million
illnesses, 23,000 deaths and $35 billion in lost productivity – all
attributable to antibiotic resistant infections. Among the
infectious diseases the parties are working to address are
carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) bacteria; they are
untreatable and hard-to-treat infections on the rise among patients
in medical facilities. CREs have become resistant to all or
nearly all the antibiotics we have today. Almost half of
hospital patients who get bloodstream infections from CRE bacteria
die from the infection. The CDC has classified CRE’s as one of
three urgent threats to the public health.
About Wadsworth Center
LaboratoriesThe Wadsworth Center laboratories stand at the
forefront of biomedical and environmental sciences and their
interplay. The Center serves a vital role in the New York State
Department of Health’s efforts to protect and promote the health of
New York’s citizens. Building on more than a century of excellence
as the state’s public health laboratory, the Center continues as a
premier biomedical institute that merges clinical and environmental
testing with fundamental, applied and translational research.
Today, Wadsworth Center scientists use both classical and
contemporary approaches to study environmental and biological
questions related to human health and disease. They develop
advanced methods to identify microbial or chemical threats; study
drug resistance, emerging infections, and environmental exposures;
manage the country’s most comprehensive diagnostic and
environmental testing laboratory permit program; oversee extramural
research programs on stem cells, breast cancer and spinal cord
injury; and train the next generation of scientists through
undergraduate, graduate, postdoctoral and visiting scientist
programs.
About OpGen
OpGen, Inc. is harnessing the power of
informatics and genomic analysis to provide complete solutions for
patient, hospital, and network-wide infection prevention and
treatment. For more information, please visit www.opgen.com.
OpGen, Acuitas, and Acuitas Lighthouse are
registered trademarks of OpGen, Inc.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release includes statements relating
to OpGen’s collaboration with New York State Department of Health
and ILÚM Health Solutions, LLC. These statements and other
statements regarding OpGen’s future plans and goals constitute
"forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of
the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934, and are intended to qualify for the safe
harbor from liability established by the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are subject to risks
and uncertainties that are often difficult to predict, are beyond
our control, and which may cause results to differ materially from
expectations. Factors that could cause our results to differ
materially from those described include, but are not limited to,
our ability to successfully, timely and cost-effectively develop,
seek and obtain regulatory clearance for and commercialize our
product and services offerings, our ability to successfully
complete the pilot portion of this project, the rate of adoption of
our products and services by hospitals and other healthcare
providers, the effect on our business of existing and new
regulatory requirements, and other economic and competitive
factors. For a discussion of the most significant risks and
uncertainties associated with OpGen's business, please review our
filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You are
cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking
statements, which are based on our expectations as of the date of
this press release and speak only as of the date of this press
release. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise
any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new
information, future events or otherwise.
OpGen Contact: Michael Farmer Vice President,
Marketing (240)
813-1284mfarmer@opgen.comInvestorRelations@opgen.com
Press Contact:Matthew BretziusFischTank
Marketing and PRmatt@fischtankpr.com
Investor Contacts: LHA Investor Relations Kim
Sutton Golodetz (212) 838-3777 kgolodetz@lhai.com or Bruce Voss
(310) 691-7100 bvoss@lhai.com
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