BEVERLY, Mass., Jan. 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — LexaGene Holdings, Inc., (OTCQB: LXXGF; TSX-V: LXG) (the “Company”), a biotechnology company that develops genetic analyzers for rapid pathogen detection and other molecular markers, announced today it has expanded its number of validated tests for antibiotic resistance and has completed testing different superbug isolates provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Antibiotic Resistance (AR) Isolate Bank.
Dr. Jack Regan, LexaGene’s CEO and Founder states, “Antibiotic resistance is a big problem. People are dying every day due to the lack of high-quality, rapid diagnostics at the point of care that can both identify the cause of an infection and determine whether it is resistant to common antibiotics. To address this shortcoming, LexaGene has developed a fully automated, molecular-based diagnostic that can provide these answers in an hour – rather than the typical 3-day turnaround time for a sample shipped to a reference laboratory. To evaluate our newly developed assays, we tested them against the most dangerous antibiotic-resistant bugs we could get our hands on and have been thrilled with the data – as we successfully detected 100% of the targeted genetic sequences.”
Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest public health threats of our time. Currently, more than 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant infections occur in the U.S. each year, and more than 35,000 people die as a result.1 The CDC has predicted that by 2050, 10 million people will die from antibiotic-resistant strains every year – surpassing the number of deaths due to cancer in present times.2
LexaGene’s study was broken into two parts, pathogen identification and antibiotic resistance detection.
For pathogen detection, LexaGene’s tests successfully detected each of the 125 targeted strains of bacteria, specifically: 55 Klebsiella sp., 31 Escherichia coli, 22 Enterobacter sp., 14 Acinetobacter baumannii, 12 Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and 5 Proteus mirabilis.
For the second part of the study, 13 different antibiotic resistance tests were used to successfully detect 90 carbapenemase resistant strains and 123 multi-drug resistant strains (carbapenemase + extended-spectrum beta-lactamases).
Dr. Regan concludes, “We now have tests that will detect bacterial pathogens that carry antimicrobial resistance and are responsible for the most commonly misdiagnosed infections. Our goal is to provide healthcare professionals with an easy to use, on-site technology that quickly informs on identified pathogens and detected antimicrobial resistance so they can improve prescription practices. This would be a significant improvement over the current standard, which is to wait three days for lab-generated test results that indicate whether the correct therapies were prescribed.”
1 https://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/biggest-threats.html
2 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5127510/
About LexaGene Holdings Inc.
LexaGene is a biotechnology company that develops genetic analyzers for pathogen detection and other molecular markers for on-site rapid testing in veterinary diagnostics, food safety and for use in open-access markets such as clinical research, agricultural testing and biodefense. End-users simply need to collect a sample, load it onto the instrument with a sample preparation cartridge, enter sample ID and press ‘go’. The LX Analyzer delivers excellent sensitivity, specificity, and breadth of detection and can return results in about 1 hour. The unique open-access feature is designed for custom testing so that end-users can load their own real-time PCR assays onto the instrument to target any genetic target of interest.
Media Contacts
Nicole Ridgedale
Director of Corporate Marketing, LexaGene
800.215.1824 ext 206
[email protected]
Investor Relations
Jay Adelaar
Vice President of Capital Markets, LexaGene
800.215.1824 ext 207
[email protected]
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This news release contains forward-looking information, which involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual events to differ materially from current expectation. Important factors — including the availability of funds, the results of financing efforts, the success of technology development efforts, the cost to procure critical parts, performance of the instrument, market acceptance of the technology, regulatory acceptance, and licensing issues — that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company’s expectations as disclosed in the Company’s documents filed from time to time on SEDAR (see www.sedar.com). Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. The company disclaims any intention or obligation, except to the extent required by law, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
