Denmark’s Bioporto will begin collaborating with the healthcare arm of German technology conglomerate Siemens on its main asset, the NGAL test, a product used to diagnose patients with acute kidney injury.

Under a new distribution agreement, BioPorto will deliver an NGAL test adapted for Siemens Healthcare’s BN II and BN ProSpec Systems, the company says in a stock market wire. The agreement is exclusive with regard to those instruments and has a worldwide scope.

After adaptation, Siemens Healthcare and BioPorto will collaborate to bring the adapted test to market, which will be followed by commencement of commercial sales.

Crucial strategic importance

Bioporto expects to see an economic impact from the new deal in the second half of 2016, it says.

"I am very pleased with the distribution agreement and the cooperation with Siemens on getting NGAL adapted for two of their systems and marketed. I expect this agreement to have minor economic impact for BioPorto this year, because the test is only marketed in the second half of 2016,” says Bioporto’s CEO, Peter Mørch Eriksen.

Collaborating with a player of Siemens’ size will have a crucial strategic importance for the availability and awareness of the diagnostic firm’s test.

“Especially since we are well underway with building the NGAL market, the strategic importance is very significant as could the economic impact become over time,” the CEO adds.

Bioporto currently awaits approval of its NGAL test from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a decision it should get in early 2016.

Cut short with no explanation

It is not the first time the Danish firm has worked with the German giant, however.

In late 2012, the two companies struck a sales partnership, meaning Siemens would market the NGAL test on its Advia 1800 devices, while Bioporto would continue to be in charge of distribution.

But in January 2013, Siemens cut the partnership short with no official explananation, much to the surprise of then-CEO of Bioporto, Thea Olesen.

“I always find it a bit odd that a company sends out a marketing letter, saying it engages in certain sales activities, and then a month later it decides to shut it down. That obviously comes off a bit odd,” she told MedWatch at the time.

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- translated by Martin Havtorn Petersen

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