Meridian Bioscience Continues to Expand Assay Portfolio

Meridian Bioscience, Inc. VIVO seems to be focused on growing its assay portfolio. This year, the manufacturer and distributor of diagnostic test kits has rolled quite a few assays in the domestic as well as international market.

Bioline, a wholly owned subsidiary of Meridian Bioscience, has recently launched EPIK miRNA Panel Assays in the global market. It is primarily designed for miRNA profiling of cancer samples, biofluids, and stem cells.

Bioline joined forces with MiRXES to develop the EPIK miRNA Panel Assays. Using the MiRXES technology, combinations of miRNA specific reverse transcriptase and hemi-nested real-time PCR primers have been developed to maximize miRNA detection sensitivity and specificity.

The real-time PCR assays use SensiSMART with SYBR Green to identify extremely low levels of miRNA with high specificity, allowing discrimination between closely related miRNA sequences. Molecular diagnostic and pharmaceutical laboratories have already validated the superiority of EPIK miRNA Panel Assays as compared to the prevalent assays in the market.

We believe that the new assays will be an important addition to the company's growing assay portfolio.

In Jul 2015, the company received FDA clearance for two new molecular tests that can effectively detect the Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV). These molecular assays will detect HSV Type 1 (HSV-1) and Type 2 (HSV-2) and will run on Meridian Bioscience's molecular platform – illumigene. Earlier this year, the company launched both the assays in Europe.

HSV assays are an important addition to the wide range of molecular tests currently available for use on the illumigene platform, viz. C. difficile, Chlamydia, Group A Streptococcus, Group B Streptococcus, Gonorrhea, Mycoplasma and Pertussis.

Earlier this year, Meridian Bioscience also won the CE Mark for molecular diagnostic testing of Chlamydia trachomatis CT and Neisseria gonorrhoeae NG. CT and NG are the most common forms of bacterial sexually transmitted diseases.

We believe that Meridian's consistently expanding assay portfolio should help it capture a higher market share in diagnostic testing along with improved top-line growth.

Zacks Rank

Meridian Bioscience currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked medical stocks include Masimo MASI, Thoratec THOR and NuVasive NUVA. All these stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

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