BioMerieux receives CE Mark for new meningitis/encephalitis panel

BioMerieux has received European CE Mark approval for its new in vitro diagnostic panel for the detection of meningitis and encephalitis.

The BioFire Diagnostics FilmArray Meningitis/Encephalitis (ME) Panel allows for quick and accurate identification of infectious agents affecting the central nervous system by testing the cerebrospinal fluid for the 14 most common pathogens responsible for community-acquired meningitis or encephalitis in about an hour.

Currently, testing cerebrospinal fluid for multiple organisms can take days and is not always possible, due to the difficulties associated with obtaining enough fluid from each patient to run multiple tests.

The panel is designed for use with the FilmArray and FilmArray 2.0 systems and is now commercially available around the globe, having been approved in the US last October.

Randy Rasmussen, BioMerieux corporate vice-president of molecular biology and chief executive officer of BioFire Diagnostics, said: "The FilmArray ME Panel further solidifies our leadership in syndromic infectious disease testing, with four in vitro diagnostic panels launched in four years."

The launch means the FilmArray system now has the largest infectious disease pathogen menu commercially available.