Philips and bioMerieux Announce Partnership to Develop and Market Next-Generation Handheld Diagnostic Solutions for Point-of-Care

AMSTERDAM and MARCY L'ETOILE, France, Jan. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) and bioMerieux (NYSE Euronext: BIM) today announced that they have signed an agreement to jointly develop fully automated handheld diagnostic testing solutions for hospital use that can be deployed at the point-of-care - i.e. close to the patient. The collaboration aims to improve diagnosis and management of disease in critical care settings within hospitals (for example, Emergency Departments, Coronary Units and Intensive Care Units (ICUs)).

"Philips is convinced that point-of-care testing in hospital critical care settings will play a major part in improving patient outcomes and reducing healthcare costs. It is an excellent fit with our leading market position in critical care settings and our holistic care cycle approach to, for example, cardiac care," said Steve Rusckowski, Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer, Philips Healthcare. "Their combined knowledge of medical technology, biomarker assays and clinical workflows, coupled with their joint understanding of the relevant markets, stakeholders and channels, puts Philips and bioMerieux in a commanding position to drive forward a paradigm change in critical care decision-making."

"We are very pleased to be partnering with Philips, which has a strong tradition in innovating patient care, and our collaboration will result in superb products able to rapidly deliver high medical value results to clinicians," said Stephane Bancel, bioMerieux Chief Executive Officer. "We will be leveraging the strong synergies between our VIDAS® biology expertise and Philips' unique engineering and technology capabilities. This new point-of-care testing device will allow us to enter a market that is growing at about 10% a year."

This new alliance unites Philips' existing strengths in medical technology, patient monitoring and healthcare IT, including solutions aimed at helping clinicians to make more informed decisions, with bioMerieux's expertise in the development of biological assays and its extensive knowledge of cardiovascular and infectious disease markers. A product development program is underway and the first milestone is expected in 2010. As part of the agreement, bioMerieux will have access to Philips' proprietary Magnotech technology for hospital-based point-of-care testing applications. Commercial solutions resulting from the partnership will be co-branded by Philips and bioMerieux, with bioMerieux being the exclusive distributor worldwide. The two companies intend to have products on the market by 2013.

In critical-care settings, such as Emergency Departments within hospitals, there is a persistent clinical need for diagnostic solutions that enable fast and accurate patient triage - for example, diagnosing acute coronary syndromes (e.g. a heart attack) to enable faster treatment and improve patient outcomes. The fully automated handheld testing devices that will be developed jointly by Philips and bioMerieux will be immunoassay-based and employ Philips' new Magnotech biosensor platform. They are intended to assist clinicians in time-critical decision-making by reducing delays involved in laboratory-based testing. Philips' Magnotech biosensor platform has been shown to have the potential to match the analytical performance of laboratory systems in terms of accuracy and sensitivity.

Philips and bioMerieux are already major players in supplying critical-care solutions for hospital environments, and the products resulting from the partnership will complement both companies' offerings. Philips' current portfolio includes a full range of diagnostic tools (e.g. medical imaging, ECG and vital function monitoring) to support healthcare providers in identifying high-risk cardiac patients during the early stages of disease. bioMerieux is already recognized among clinicians for its high medical value tests, which include the VIDAS range of cardiac emergency markers: Troponin I Ultra, Myoglobin, CK-MB, D-Dimer and NT-proBNP. The solutions co-developed with Philips will be complementary to VIDAS, giving clinicians the option of point-of-care testing without compromising on assay performance.

About Royal Philips Electronics

Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) is a diversified Health and Well-being company, focused on improving people's lives through timely innovations. As a world leader in healthcare, lifestyle and lighting, Philips integrates technologies and design into people-centric solutions, based on fundamental customer insights and the brand promise of "sense and simplicity". Headquartered in the Netherlands, Philips employs more than 118,000 employees in more than 60 countries worldwide. With sales of EUR 26 billion in 2008, the company is a market leader in cardiac care, acute care and home healthcare, energy efficient lighting solutions and new lighting applications, as well as lifestyle products for personal well-being and pleasure with strong leadership positions in flat TV, male shaving and grooming, portable entertainment and oral healthcare. News from Philips is located at www.philips.com/newscenter.

About bioMerieux

Advancing diagnostics to improve public health

A world leader in the field of in vitro diagnostics for over 45 years, bioMerieux is present in more than 150 countries through 39 subsidiaries and a large network of distributors. In 2008, revenues reached euro 1.111 billion with 84% of sales outside of France. bioMerieux provides diagnostic solutions (reagents, instruments, software) which determine the source of disease and contamination to improve patient health and ensure consumer safety. Our 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. bioMerieux is listed on the NYSE Euronext Paris market (Symbol: BIM - ISIN: FR0010096479). Other information can be found at www.biomerieux.com.

SOURCE bioMerieux; Philips