Alere Introduces the World’s First Fingerstick BNP Test

Alere has launched the world’s first fingerstick BNP (b-type natriuretic peptide) test as an aid in diagnosis and assessment of severity of patients with heart failure. Providing rapid point of care BNP results to aid healthcare professionals in their decision making process, the compact BNP analyser provides lab accurate results within 15 minutes from a 12µl capillary blood sample. The new Alere™ Heart Check System is designed to aid in the diagnosis of heart failure, assess the severity of heart failure, and enable risk stratification of patients with heart failure as well as those with acute coronary syndromes.

The Alere™ Heart Check System consists of a portable, compact analysis platform and the Alere™ Heart Check BNP Test Strips. The smart technology used in the test strips facilitates the simple testing process, making analysis quick, clean and easy. The system offers an objective, non invasive diagnostic tool at the point-of-care with excellent correlation to the predicate lab-based assay.

“Our approach to connected health is changing where care is delivered. Our new Alere™ Heart Check System will provide clinicians and patients with analytical data in real-time, contributing to improved quality of life for those diagnosed with or at risk of heart failure, whilst at the same time lowering healthcare and associated costs.” explains Ron Zwanziger, Chairman and CEO of Alere.

Heart failure can often be confused with other conditions, such as lung disease, making an accurate diagnosis important to ensure the most appropriate treatment and care is in place. BNP levels can help doctors differentiate between heart failure and other problems, since the level of natriuretic peptides in the blood increases as chronic heart failure advances. Timely heart failure treatment decisions at the point-of-care can not only accelerate diagnosis and treatment, but also reduce re-admission rates for heart failure patients and associated costs.

The Alere™ Heart Check system is CE marked, which expresses conformity with the requirements of the European IVD Directive and will initially be launched in Germany, Italy, Ireland, UK and Sweden. A timeline for US and the rest of the world availability will be established shortly.