BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--“Global HIV, viral hepatitis epidemics and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) continue to pose significant public health challenges, causing 2.5 million deaths each year,” according to a new WHO report. The report found four curable STIs -- chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis and trichomoniasis -- are responsible for more than 1 million infections daily among adults between ages 15 and 49, and binx health is continuing its strategy of expanding access to rapid onsite testing for chlamydia and gonorrhea, which are the most common reportable STI infections in the USA.
“There is a pressing need for affordable rapid multiplex platforms that can simultaneously diagnose multiple pathogens, and for reliable point-of-care technologies appropriate for use in health care settings with no or limited access to a laboratory,” said the WHO.
“We’re excited by the adds to our commercial team and bringing on our fifth distribution partner in the coming days,” said Jeffrey Luber, binx health CEO. “This will bring our commercial footprint nationally to well over 1,200 as we continue to see clinics convert from multi-day wait times to rapid answers onsite for both male and female populations through binx. The future is point-of-care and we’re excited to be leading the charge in sexual health.”
The binx® io molecular point-of-care system continues to be the only FDA-cleared, CLIA-waived molecular testing platform that can test both males and females for chlamydia and gonorrhea in about thirty minutes at levels of accuracy comparable to central-laboratory testing, consistent with the WHO’s call-to-action. Using urine specimens from males and clinician- or self-collected vaginal swabs from females, the binx platform is seeing broad adoption across market verticals and clinic types. Unlike traditional test workflows, results are available with binx in minutes rather than days, enabling clinicians to have conversations with patients who test positive while they are still in the clinic—preventing loss to follow up and empiric antibiotic prescribing.
“A powerful tool in achieving the WHO’s ambitious STI screening goals is to arm our providers with a point-of-care platform that can lead to treatment guidance for all populations coming to us, before the patient leaves our clinic,” said Melissa Reed, CEO of Planned Parenthood Keystone, Warminster PA. “Only binx offers a platform with this ability, furthering WHO’s goal of health equity and inclusion of everyone regardless of gender and sexual orientation. The binx platform’s ability to test both female vaginal swabs and male urine specimens give us this broad ability.”
The WHO report further emphasized the importance of access to STI testing strategies and strengthening efforts for those at higher risk of infection including sex workers, men who have sex with men, transgender people, adolescents in some settings and pregnant women. Point-of-care platforms that can rapidly test both males and females remain critical in the tool set of clinics when selecting a solution for such broad populations.
“Having served in leadership roles with both Thermo Fisher and Abbott Diagnostics, I had the opportunity to see up close the market need for male/female rapid onsite testing that connects to EHR,” said Michael Karsonovich, binx health, Chief Commercial Officer. “I joined binx due to the market need for better solutions as a key driver to stem the tide of infection spread. Given the demand we’re seeing in the market and the strength of our manufacturing and distribution relationships, I’m heartened by the strong role we can play in addressing the concerns recently raised by the WHO.”
With global manufacturing in the US, Europe and APAC, and the relationships binx has built with the best commercial distribution partners in the industry, the company continues to lead the market in scalable, low cost-of-goods solutions for the millions of people who need them. Manufacturing partners including Harmac Medical Products’ Ireland division, which has helped arm binx with strides in capacity and low COGS to meet rising demand.
“Our vision at Harmac Medical Products is ‘changing the lives of patients, employees and communities in which we work’. We are thrilled to be working with binx to manufacture a product that upholds these values and has the ability to impact patient outcomes given rising demand,” said John Somers, President and CEO of Harmac Medical Products. “The ability to partner with binx and advance the manufacture of their critically important product for public health perfectly fits with Harmac’s manufacturing expertise and we look forward to being part of the solution of helping to stem the STI epidemic globally.”
About binx health
binx health® is a healthcare technology and diagnostics company focused on innovating solutions to improve routine testing and convenience, providing timely results to improve patient care. The binx io point-of-care molecular platform is the first ever FDA-cleared, CLIA-waived point-of-care system for the detection of chlamydia and gonorrhea in both males (urine) and females (vaginal swab) that provides results in about thirty minutes with performance comparable to central labs. The binx io platform is highly flexible, easy to use, and enables rapid testing and treatment in a single patient visit. For more information, visit https://mybinxhealth.com