bioMérieux subsidiary receives approval for one-hour Ebola test

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Photographer: Henrik Soendergaard/Bavarian Nordic A/S via Bloomberg

Production operators stand by tubes in a bioreactor as they prepare a cell culture for growing active Ebola vaccine substances in the laboratory of Bavarian Nordic A/S in Kvistgaard, Denmark. The vaccine, to combat the virus that has killed thousands in West Africa, combines a shot from Johnson & Johnson's Janssen unit in the Netherlands with one developed by Danish biotechnology company Bavarian Nordic, J&J said in a statement two days ago.

Jason deBruyn

Staff Writer- Triangle Business Journal

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BioFire Defense, a subsidiary of bioMérieux, received emergency use authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its Ebola test that can scan for the virus in one hour.

The test runs BioFire's FilmArray platform, which is already in 300 U.S. hospitals. The specific diagnostic test, called BioThreat-E, is approved only for the duration of severe threat of an Ebola outbreak.

bioMérieux, which recently expanded operations in Durham, acquired Salt Lake City-based BioFire in January for $485 million. France-based bioMérieux has sales of about $2 billion and expected the BioFire acquisition to increase revenue by about $80 million.

Jason deBruyn covers The Biopharmaceutical and Health Care industries. Follow him on Twitter @jasondebruyn.