Singapore: Universal Biosensors has strengthened its partnership with Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics, by signing a long term supply and manufacturing agreement which will see Universal become the exclusive manufacturer of three test strips, currently being jointly developed for the point-of-care (POC) coagulation testing market.

Universal Biosensors is developing with Siemens, a range of products for the POC coagulation testing market. The signing of the supply and manufacturing agreement represents an important milestone for Universal Biosensors in the lead up to the launch of the first product in this range, a PT-INR testing system used to monitor the application of the anti-coagulant therapy Warfarin, which is expected to be commercially available in 2013.

The supply and manufacturing agreement means that UBI will be the exclusive manufacturer of the three test strips currently in development. The strips will be manufactured at the company's existing plant in Rowville, Victoria. In turn, Siemens will register, market, and sell the products globally. Apart from the ongoing R&D milestone payments to be received from Siemens, Universal Biosensors will generate a return on its R&D investment in coagulation testing via its gross margin earned on the
manufacture and supply of test strips to Siemens. In addition, consistent with the collaboration philosophy, Universal Biosensors will share in incremental profits generated by Siemens on sales of these products that
exceed their current forecasts by a specified amount.

Mr Paul Wright, CEO, Universal Biosensors, said that, "The signing of this supply agreement is a major step forward in our relationship with Siemens and towards our shared vision for bringing a range of novel handheld analysers to the POC coagulation testing market. Universal Biosensors will leverage its existing infrastructure to offer world-class manufacturing support to Siemens and create a new and important long term earnings stream for our business."

Point-of-care coagulation testing is estimated to be worth over $1billion annually and is growing at over 10 percent per year as a result of the increased use of anti-coagulant therapies such as warfarin and heparin, used to prevent the development of blood clots. Use of these medications needs to be closely monitored, and currently requires frequent blood tests.
The systems being developed by Universal Biosensors and Siemens will deliver laboratory-quality results at the point-of-care in response to growing demand for near-patient testing solutions, including those that deliver time-critical coagulation data.