PositiveID Announces Highlights for Third Quarter 2016
GlobeNewswire•September 27, 2016
DELRAY BEACH, Fla., Sept. 27, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PositiveID Corporation (“PositiveID” or “Company”) (PSID), a life sciences company focused on detection and diagnostics, announced today a summary of its highlights for the third quarter of 2016.
Highlights
• PositiveID was awarded a follow-on contract from the U.S. Department of the Interior on behalf of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Science & Technology Directorate for the SenseNet Program Phase II, in conjunction with its partner ENSCO.
• The Company announced that it is conducting a pilot study with seqID inc using PositiveID's Firefly Dx polymerase chain reaction ("PCR") breadboard prototype pathogen detection system ("prototype system") to detect genetically modified organisms for the agricultural market.
• The Company completed its acquisition of Thermomedics Inc., the designer and marketer of the Caregiver® infrared, non-contact thermometer, which is FDA-cleared for clinical use.
• PositiveID announced that it expects to launch a Bluetooth® version of its FDA-cleared Caregiver® infrared, non-contact thermometer by early 2017, to connect wirelessly to electronic health record (EHR) systems and other hospital equipment such as patient monitoring stations.
• The Company announced that Caregiver outperformed a temporal artery thermometer in every category evaluated during a Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System study of Post Anesthesia Care Unit ("PACU") patients.
• PositiveID added Paul Schaudies, Ph.D., Co-Founder and CEO of GenArraytion, to its Board of Advisors. PositiveID has successfully detected the Zika virus on its Firefly Dx prototype system using GenArraytion’s Zika assay, the first commercially available, multi-target, PCR-based molecular test to identify the Zika virus, its Aedes Aegypti MultiFLEX™ PCR test.
• During the third quarter of 2016 bookings for vehicle production and modification at the Company’s E-N-G-Mobile Systems (“ENG”) subsidiary grew approximately 170% over the quarterly average for the first two quarters of 2016.
“We continue to make strides to expand and improve operationally in all areas of our business, and we are particularly proud of the follow-on contract award we received for the second phase of the DHS SenseNet program, which, we believe, further validates our Firefly Dx technology,” stated William J. Caragol, Chairman and CEO of PositiveID. “We believe our product portfolio, which has grown significantly following our acquisitions of Thermomedics and ENG in late 2015, represents best-in-class technologies in each of the markets we serve, and are confident these acquisitions will continue to benefit our Company for the remainder of 2016 and beyond.”
PositiveID is developing the Firefly Dx prototype system to be a handheld, fully automated, lab quality, real-time device able to detect pathogens at the point of need. A design advantage of Firefly Dx is that it does not require additional equipment or separate steps for sample preparation and purification, unlike current lab-based equipment, thus reducing time to results as well as cost per test. Firefly's applications include point-of-need, lab-quality, detection of pathogenic organisms; agricultural and food screening in both domestic sectors and developing countries; and detection of biological agents associated with weapons of mass destruction.
Caregiver is a clinical grade, infrared thermometer for measurement of forehead temperature in adults, children, and infants, without contact. It delivers an oral-equivalent temperature directly from the forehead in one to two seconds. Since there is no skin contact and Caregiver does not require probe cover supplies, it reduces the risk of cross-contamination, which is an increasing concern, and saves healthcare facilities the cost of covers (as much as $0.05 to $0.10 per temperature), storage space, and waste disposal costs. It is estimated that Caregiver can offer savings of $250 or more per year per device in probe cover supplies alone.
E-N-G Mobile Systems (“ENG”) is a leader in the mobile laboratory market, which is a growing segment of the specialty vehicle market as concerns over food and environment contamination, and biological and chemical weapons increase. ENG has built over 400 mobile labs, more than any other specialty vehicle manufacturer, designed for chemical and biological detection, monitoring and analysis. ENG, which has been in business for almost 40 years, further differentiates itself from its competitors with its team of scientists who work in conjunction with the design engineers and shop personnel to deliver the most advanced mobile labs available.
