Australian medical technology company LBT Innovations Limited has been appointed by joint venture company Clever Culture Systems AG (CCS) as the distributor for APAS® Independence in Australia and New Zealand.

This will see LBT as the primary point of contact to sell, market and service the APAS® technology in its home markets. Australia will be the first global launch country for APAS® Independence and is an important milestone to achieve in having a direct distribution strategy in the first launch market.

CCS have developed a due diligence process for the selection of global distributors and LBT was evaluated against this checklist and compared with alternate distribution options available. LBT CEO and Managing Director Brent Barnes, said: “Australia is an important strategic launch market for CCS and appointing LBT as its distributor makes sense for a number of reasons. Most importantly it will ensure we have timely and direct feedback from our customers, avoiding potential delays that may inadvertently occur when using a distribution partner. With clarity over distribution, we can immediately focus on securing reference laboratories that will independently trial APAS® Independence, which we expect to commence in September 2017.”

LBT, as the initial developer of APAS®, has existing software and engineering expertise in house and an ability to provide experienced market support. This market focus coupled with existing microbiology, sales and marketing expertise will set the foundations for building global expertise used to support distributors who will be appointed in other global markets.

Having recently showcased APAS® Independence at the two largest trade shows of the year being the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (April 2017) and American Society of Microbiology (June 2017), CCS are concurrently progressing discussions with potential distribution partners in other key markets.

The APAS® Independence will be trialed in microbiology centres of excellence in the coming months as part of an ongoing strategy to develop a global network of reference laboratories for APAS® Independence. APAS® is a breakthrough artificial intelligence technology for the automated imaging, image analysis, interpretation and reporting of growth on microbiology culture plates after incubation. The APAS® independence improves the clinical efficiency of microbiology labs and enables faster diagnosis and reporting of infectious diseases.