Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Chicago Tribune - September 28, 2006
Bruce Japsen, bjapsen@tribune.com
North Chicago-based Abbott and OraSure Technologies Inc. agreed four years ago to co-market an HIV test that detects the presence of antibodies for the human immunodeficiency virus in as little as 20 minutes. Abbott buys the tests from Orasure and distributes them to laboratories at hospitals and physicians' offices.
The relationship is expected to blossom after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week recommended that HIV tests, which have been voluntary, should become part of routine checkups for people 13 to 64. The recommendations replace guidelines that called for testing individuals who are at high risk for the virus.
Even though the CDC said more and more Americans get tested each year, it is thought that there are still more than 250,000 Americans who do not know they are infected with the virus. The new guidelines should help prevent the spread of the disease and help reduce the stigma some perceive about getting tested, CDC officials said. About 40,000 Americans are infected with HIV each year, the agency said.
"We are confident that as a result of the revised recommendations more individuals will get tested and learn their HIV status," said OraSure's president and chief executive, Douglas Michels, who worked at Abbott in the 1980s in various sales and product management positions.
Even before the CDC announcement, the relationship had been beneficial to both Abbott and Orasure, according to the Bethlehem, Pa.-based company's chief financial officer, Ron Spair. He said sales of OraSure's OraQuick Advance Rapid HIV-1/2 Antibody Test accounted for $25 million of OraSure's $69 million in revenue last year.
Abbott purchased $4.9 million worth of the test in 2005, an increase of 149 percent from 2004, Spair said. In the first six months of this year Abbott purchased $3.6 million worth of the tests from OraSure, an increase of 120 percent from the year-ago period.
In 2005 Abbott became the exclusive distributor of OraQuick for hospitals. Orasure said the test is the leader in the hospital market, used in more than 1,600 U.S. hospitals. "Abbott has been an outstanding partner for us," Spair said.
The companies would not project potential sales revenue from the test. Neither Abbott nor OraSure would disclose the price the product is sold to Abbott for or how much Abbott charges hospitals.
OraSure said the test has been sold to the CDC as part of a government contract for $11 each.
The tests are part of Abbott's diagnostic operation, which has been growing this year. Abbott's worldwide diagnostic sales were about 17 percent of the company's $22.3 billion in sales last year.
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