Contributing to Patient Care & Antimicrobial Stewardship
Florence Frager from bioMérieux is one of the EFPIA partners in COMBACTE-CDI. She and her team have been involved in Work Package 1 aiming at quantifying the burden of CDI in Europe. According to Florence, the goals of COMBACTE-CDI align with those of bioMérieux in developing high-medical value tests and complete diagnostic solutions to support optimized patient management.
Florence Frager is Global Medical Scientist Manager at bioMérieux, part of the Medical Affairs team, responsible for providing the information, opinions, proof and debate related to the true medical value of bioMérieux's products – whether early in research/development, during clinical validation or years following an in vitro diagnostics product launch.
“We organize and undertake advisory boards, opinion-leader meetings, medical education programs, wide-ranging research studies and clinical trials and product assessments. My team focuses on developing and managing clinical utility and health economic outcomes research (HEOR) studies for our molecular diagnostic products” says Florence.
bioMérieux has been a major player in in vitro diagnostics for more than 50 years. Patient care and antimicrobial Stewardship are at the heart of bioMérieux’s commitment to clinical diagnostics. Three quarters of its R&D is dedicated to AMR and 80% of the product portfolio contributes to fighting antibiotic resistance. bioMérieux’s diagnostic solutions bring high medical value to healthcare professionals, providing them with the most relevant and reliable information, as quickly as possible, to support treatment decisions and improve patient care.
“I have been involved in the project’s Work Package 1 aiming at quantifying the burden of CDI in Europe. As part of the study, the presence of other pathogens in stools of diarrheic syndromes was assessed using a multiplex PCR syndromic assay developed by bioMérieux (BIOFIRE® FILMARRAY® gastrointestinal panel). This could allow to characterize the presence of other common gastro intestinal pathogens including viruses, bacterial parasites that cause infectious diarrhea. I really enjoyed working on this project as it is a unique opportunity to collaborate and exchange with a well-recognized and state-of-the art network of experts on C. difficile.”
EFPIA Partner in COMBACTE-CDI
bioMérieux was offered to join COMBACTE-CDI just after the project’s launch, after an EFPIA partner withdrawal for strategic reasons. “COMBACTE-CDI realized that our company had distinctive assets, technologies and products that would strengthen the project. From a company perspective, it allowed us to join a network of excellence to evaluate advanced concepts, assess the value of new products and technologies and anticipate how to better address clinical needs. bioMérieux accepted to become Deputy Industrial Lead and join the management board. COMBACTE-CDI has been priming our company and in vitro diagnostics which is recognized in the IMI community“.
Importance of CDI Research
“Today, C. difficile is one of our most challenging healthcare-associated infections, accounting for more than 60% of all cases of healthcare-associated diarrhea. In most cases, C. difficile is contracted in the healthcare setting and is connected to antibiotic treatment. C. difficile infection incurs costly treatment, patient isolation and longer hospital stays. In addition to the impact on patients themselves, this means high economic burden on hospitals and healthcare systems. There is however a lack of robust, comprehensive data on the impact of CDI across countries in Europe and COMBACTE-CDI will feel this gap. The ultimate goal is to contribute to improved antimicrobials stewardship for patients suffering from such infections that are responsible for extensive morbidity, mortality and healthcare costs.”
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