BioFire Defense, LLC of Salt Lake City, UT announced today that it was awarded the Next Generation Diagnostic System (NGDS) Technology Development contract by the US Department of Defense (DoD) after 12 months of competitive prototyping. The 8 year $240M biodefense program is managed by the Joint Program Executive Office’s Medical Countermeasure Systems (JPEO MCS) office. The NGDS program will expand BioFire’s FilmArray diagnostic menu by developing Biothreat test capabilities for use across all four branches of the DoD.
“This is a fantastic opportunity to deliver the most cutting edge diagnostic system to our Warfighter,” said Kirk Ririe, CEO of BioFire Defense. “The motivated team at JPEO has pushed an aggressive schedule and a cost effective approach that will be met by exploiting our FilmArray’s commercial diagnostic capabilities, to provide for our Nation’s biodefense and improve DoD health care.”
The NGDS program will develop and deliver the new standard of biowarfare detection to the US Department of Defense, replacing the current Joint Biologic Agententification and Diagnostic System (JBAIDS). With the dual role FilmArray platform, the DoD will be able to detect bioterror pathogens, as well as run the full suite of diagnostic test panels available for the system, including Respiratory and Blood Culture test panels. Other options in the contract include additional test panel development and platform hardening for improved ruggedness.
About BioFire Defense BioFire Defense, LLC, formerlyaho Technology, Inc., is a subsidiary of bioMerieux Inc. (Durham, NC) and is based in Salt Lake City, Utah. BioFire Defense is focused on technology innovation and product development of pathogenentification and the life science applications. It has developed and provided products for defense, food testing, and the life sciences since 1990.
BioFire Diagnostics, LLC, its sister subsidiary, continues delivering and expanding the clinical applications of the FilmArray System to hospital-based clinical laboratories across the world.
For more information, contact: Matt Scullion Vice President, Sales & Marketing Phone: 801-262-3592 x.1327 Email: matt.scullion@biofiredefense.com