The French medical diagnostics supplier, Biocentric, is the latest company to achieve Platinum Distributor Status from DiaSorin in recognition of their outstanding contribution to sales of the DiaSorin Arrow instrument and molecular extraction kits throughout France and overseas. In the 5 years that Biocentric has been a distributor of Arrow products, their annual sales have demonstrated significant year on year growth.

“We are pleased to partner with innovative and dynamic companies, such as Biocentric” comments Paul Eros, Global Vice President Molecular, DiaSorin. "A supplier of Arrow products since 2009, Biocentric has ensured that sales of the Arrow instrument and extraction kits have grown steadily year on year, not just in France but overseas as well, and we are delighted to recognise their achievements.”

“The Arrow instrument and extraction kits are a perfect fit for our molecular biology product portfolio,” says Marc Tordjeman, Director, Biocentric. “They allow us to offer the complete solution from sample extraction to amplification and interpretation. They are very popular with our customers because they are easy to use and reliable. The Arrow instrument is also easy to service and more affordable compared to some of the larger automated extraction platforms that are available.”

“Much of our growth in sales of the Arrow products has accompanied sales of our own Generic HIV test, which is used to monitor viral loads during the treatment of HIV patients. Previously, viral load measurements were very expensive and could only be performed on closed systems, which kept the cost high. In 2006, we began to market our own Generic HIV test, which was developed by the National Agency for Research on AIDS and Viral Hepatitis (ANRS) in France to allow developing countries to perform viral load testing at a fraction of the cost compared to closed platform assays.”

“The Arrow Viral Nucleic Acid extraction kit is used to extract the target nucleic acid from the patient sample prior to viral load measurement,” he continues. “The Arrow instrument is ideal for our customer group because it is robust, reliable and relatively mobile. Furthermore, the Arrow extraction kits are ready to use, minimising pipetting errors; have performance comparable to manual and reference methods; and are very easy to use, all of which are important considerations for our customers.”

“All of our viral load tests were developed with Arrow extraction kits, including our hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus assays, which are currently in development. With the new treatments that are available for hepatitis, there is a tremendous need for these assays in order to monitor response to treatment.”

“We find that DiaSorin provides excellent distributor support,” Marc Tordjeman concludes. “They are very innovative, with a good breadth of portfolio, as well as offering distributor meetings and a good standard of training and support. We look forward to a continued good relationship with them in France.”

For further information about the DiaSorin Molecular range of products or if you would like to enquire about becoming a DiaSorin Distributor, please email info@ie.diasorin.com.