Jerusalem-based Oridion Systems (SWX: ORIDN), the Swiss-listed maker of diagnostic products, today announced it was suspending its US breath test operations and concentrating most of its marketing efforts in Europe.
Oridion, which makes the Microstream capnography and BreathID diagnostic breath test products, noted that it had already won approval in Europe to market a breath test to monitor liver function, a breath test for the measurement of the Gastric Emptying Rate, and the Helicobacter pylori (H. Pylori) breath test. As a result, there was an “ongoing increase in European sales”, Oridion said.
H. pylori is a bacteria found in the gastric tract and has been linked to peptic ulcers and gastric cancer.
In the US, only Oridion’s H. pylori breath test is currently cleared and approved by the FDA for sale, as the company prepares for the regulatory approval process for its other breath tests. Oridion said that following its marketing activities over the past six months in the US, the company concluded that offering only a single H. pylori breath test was not sufficient to justify the required level of sales and marketing activities.
As a result of the decision, Oridion received notice that Meretek would not be pursuing a preliminary injunction in the patent infringement suit brought against Oridion last May. Meretek alleges in the suit that Oridion’s H. pylori breath test infringes a patent to which it holds an exclusive license.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on 4 August, 2003