In January 2010 BÜHLMANN starts the distribution of the innovative diagnostic products of BioPorto in Switzerland, Austria and France. The main product of BioPorto is the NGAL ELISA which is the most important biomarker for direct diagnosis of acute kidney injury (AKI).

NGAL begins to rise within an hour of AKI, whereas current diagnostic methods only detect the consequences of damage well after the event.

The NGAL product portfolio of BioPorto contains a rapid CE marked ELISA allowing a raised level of NGAL to be rapidly determined in urine or plasma sample. For research samples the slower but more sensitive ELISA is to be preferred. For pharmaceutical animal research BioPorto is offering three different ELISA variants for mouse, rat or pig samples.

Besides the Cystatin C assay for accurate diagnosis of chronic kidney disease (CKD), BÜHLMANN now offers this remarkable addition for AKI complementing the kidney disease portfolio.

BÜHLMANN Laboratories AG participates at the upcoming Arab Health in Dubai, 25 - 28 January 2010 (http://www.arabhealthonline.com), together with its distributor for the Middle East, Bioactiva Diagnostica.

This participation is a unique chance to get first hand information and support for BÜHLMANN Products. We invite customers to visit us at the Bioactiva Diagnostics Booth in the Sheik Maktoum Hall, booth MF 31, or even better to fix an appointment (info@buhlmannlabs.ch).

BÜHLMANN will be represented with its COO, Dr. Thomas Hafen. We are looking forward to be in contact with current and prospective customers and to highlight some of our products like Calprotectin. We are however also interested to get in contact with new distributors serving some of the rapidly growing markets on the African or Asian continent.

BÜHLMANN Laboratories AG is proud to introduce its latest sister company BUHLMANN Italia srl, to go live on January 1^st, 2010. The new company will serve all of the BÜHLMANN customers in Italy and significantly strengthen the presence of BÜHLMANN in the Italian market.

Dr.ssa Daniela Maioli, Director Marketing&Sales of BUHLMANN Italia srl: "The new company allows us to be even closer to our customers and to serve them better. BÜHLMANN has excellently developed in Italy in the last years and more and more hospitals and laboratories request the BÜHLMANN high quality products. That BÜHLMANN Laboratories AG have decided to start an own company in Italy reflects the importance of this market and of our customers."

Thomas Hafen, COO of BÜHLMANN Laboratories AG: "Italian customers are known as very experienced, professional and innovative. They are always looking for new, quality products and innovations - attributes BÜHLMANN stands for. BUHLMANN Italia srl is our chance to use this potential even better. Beyond this, BUHLMANN Italia srl strengthens our position as a leading niche supplier of clinical routine diagnostics and high quality distributor of IVDs in immunochemistry and molecular diagnostics."

BÜHLMANN Laboratories AG was founded in 1976 in Basel / Switzerland. BUHLMANN Italia srl is the third BÜHLMANN sister company, after BÜHLMANN in Austria GmbH (1992) and BÜHLMANN France SAS (2002). Together with BÜHLMANN Germany, the BÜHLMANN Group now covers up to 70% of the European IVD Market with direct sales channels to laboratories and hospitals.

BÜHLMANN is specialised in high quality niches of clinical routine IVDs, and offers a number of unique or gold standard products to the market. Product range includes leading cellular allergy test Flow2 CAST^®, the BÜHLMANN GanglioCombi^® Product group or the gold standard Melatonin products. Recent releases are a unique Parkinson MeTIQ ELISA or the fastest and easiest GHB Drug of Abuse tests (“k.o. drops”) for open channels of clinical chemistry analyzers. For Calprotectin, BÜHLMANN cooperates in Italy with Meridian Biosciences Europe srl, Milan, namely for the promotion of Quantum Blue^® Calprotectin - the only quantitative rapid Calprotectin test so far available on the market.

In collaboration with the Basel University of Applied Life Sciences (Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz) we developed in the field of Neurology / NeuroImmunology and in vitro diagnostics: Parkinson-MeTIQ ELISA  it is designed for the quantitative determination of 1-MeTIQ (1-Methyl-1,2,3,4-Tetrahydroisoquinoline) and it’s meant to be measured in patients and animal models with Parkinson Disease (PD).

Immediate or non-immediate hypersensitivity reactions to contrast media occur in about 3% of intravenous Contrast Media applications. They are a concern for radiologists and cardiologists. The basophil activation test is very helpful for diagnosis of patients with Contrast Media hypersensitivity.

Previous reactors have an increased risk to develop repeated reactions. At the time beeing there are no reliable in-vitro tests for routine diagnosis of contrast media hypersensitivity. Now the Flow2 CAST assays offer a clinical cut-off to detect Contrast Media allergic patents with negative skin tests with Sensitivity around 60% and specificity of 90%.

BÜHLMANN now introduced 8 new contrast media allergens to our allergen portfolio. Detailed informations on these allergens are described in the single allergen data sheets.

BÜHLMANN Laboratories AG, Basel, Switzerland, announced today to have signed a Medical Adviser Agreement with Dr. Arne Roseth, Oslo, Norway, in order to support BÜHLMANN’s global initiative to promote fecal Calprotectin in diagnosis and therapy follow up of inflammatory conditions of the intestine.

Dr. Roseth is a US-Norwegian gastroenterologist with more than 15 years of practical experience in the use of Calprotectin and one of the global key opinion leaders for the application of this novel biomarker. “The cooperation with BÜHLMANN supports my goal to ease the daily life of patients with Crohn’s disease,” comments Dr. Roseth, “and to support clinicians around the world in using a simple, reliable and cost-effective diagnostic tool to differentiate between IBS and IBD.”

BÜHLMANN Laboratories AG is an independent Swiss manufacturer of high quality IVDs for niches in clinical routine diagnostics. The BÜHLMANN Calprotectin product group includes a Calprotectin ELISA as well as Quantum Blue®, an easy to use Point-of Care rapid test system.

Calprotectin, a GI inflammatory marker, has a fundamental role in the differentiating between Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). Patients suffering from IBS do not have increased fecal Calprotectin values. Fecal Calprotectin concentrations, as measured by the BÜHLMANN Calprotectin assays, are significantly elevated in patients with IBD and correlate well with endoscopic and histological assessment of disease activity.

Over two million patients in Europe suffer from IBD, and it is estimated that IBS affects more than 30 million Europeans. This novel and simple test will avoid unnecessary colon endoscopies for Ulcerative Colitis or Crohn's disease and will minimize discomfort while offering substantial savings for patients and health systems.

The agreement of BÜHLMANN with Dr. Roseth adds to the global outreach strategy and recent cooperation agreement with Meridian Bioscience Europe and other specialized IVD suppliers in the Field.

Contact: Dr. Thomas Hafen, COO, BÜHLMANN Laboratories AG

+41 61 487 12 24 (office)

Determination of GHB (liquid Ecstasy) in human samples was a challenge until today. Expensive and laborious chromatographic methods did not allow the prompt determination of suspicious samples. The BÜHLMANN GHB enzymatic assay will give the toxicology laboratories a quick, easy and cost efficient screening tool to investigate even samples with lower suspicion.

The GHB enzymatic assay is available now as a CE marked in vitro diagnostics. Evaluated and CE marked protocols for the most important clinical chemistry analyser will be available soon.

The new product "oxidized DNA ELISA" (EK-ODG) is available now. The assay allows the quantitative detection of oxidized guanosin (8-OHdG) in urine which is one of the major products of oxidative Stress in the individual’s body. The ELISA is a complete and user-friendly kit.

Normal metabolism of oxygen produces so-called Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) which are highly reactive molecules. ROS permanently damage lipids of cellular membranes, proteins and also DNA and RNA.

In healthy people there is a balance between oxidants (ROS) and anti-oxidants and highly effective repair mechanisms which prevent continual destruction of genetic material.

In research oxidative stress takes a prominent place in the prevention of very different diseases. Numerous studies show tight correlation between oxidative stress and the appearance of more than 200 diseases like arthrosclerosis, AIDS, inflammatory diseases, Diabetes mellitus and general aging as well as cancer.

The knowledge of the individual oxidative stress status can be regarded as disease prevention.

Today, numerous service laboratories in the western countries offer already a large panel of different tests to estimate the status of oxidative stress. Besides the determination of anti-oxidants, micronutrients and marker of the iron metabolism oxidized lipids and DNA are of major interest.

Determination of oxidized DNA therefore must be regarded as one important brick in a complete clarification of the individual’s health and aging status.

The anti-MAG ELISA: a sensitive and reliable screening method for determining anti-MAG antibodies as shown in new study by Kuijf et al., Neurology (73), 2009 from ERASMUS MC in Rotterdam (NL).

Vox BÜHLMANN Medical provides up to date informations on new products, customer feedback, new application fields as well as on events at which BÜHLMANN is present. Second edition of Vox BÜHLMANN Medical  in  German  and French.