Abaxis' Piccolo Xpress Gets Health Canada Nod - Analyst Blog

Lab-accurate blood chemistry analysis in real time will now be available in Canada thanks to Abaxis, Inc. ABAX which won Class III approval from Health Canada for its Piccolo Xpress and Piccolo Reagent Discs point-of-care blood analysis systems.

Piccolo Blood Chemistry Analyzers allow healthcare providers to perform routine multi-chemistry panels using 0.1cc of whole blood, serum or plasma. This blood analysis system uses patented reagent discs that contain up to 15 chemistry tests. These reagent discs are innovatively designed to handle almost all technical steps of blood chemistry testing automatically. Moreover, the Piccolo Blood Chemistry Analyzer lines are available in a non-lab setting and promise delivery of results in less than 12 minutes, thus helping expedite the treatment procedure.

We believe Abaxis' Piccolo Chemistry Analyzers should enhance the quality of healthcare services offered in Canada. By virtue of lab-accurate blood chemistry results delivered on-site within a few minutes, healthcare professionals will be able to take adequately informed decisions in a time- and cost-effective manner. On the whole, we are confident about the efficacy of Piccolo Xpress and expect the recent approval to seamlessly strengthen Abaxis' foothold in the point-of-care diagnostics market in Canada. This is significant as according to the latest report by MarketsandMarkets, the global point-of-care diagnostics market is expected to scale $27.5 billion by 2018, at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.3% from 2013 through 2018.

The Piccolo Chemistry Analyzers fall under the Medical Products segment of Abaxis which contributed 16.3% to the company's total revenues in the first nine months of fiscal 2014.

Quite recently, Abaxis gained the status of being the only company that provides a capillary or venous Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA)-waived Lipid and Liver panel capable of monitoring statin medications at the point-of-care. These recent positive developments have the potential to accelerate Abaxis' core revenue growth organically.

However, Abaxis currently holds a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

Some better-ranked stocks that warrant a look in the broader healthcare sector are Enzymotec Ltd. ENZY, St. Jude Medical Inc. STJ and Covidien plc COV. Enzymotec sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) while St. Jude Medical and Covidien carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).