The State Intellectual Property Office of China has issued a conditional decision granting a patent for BacterOMIC’s microfluidic chip, which assesses the drug susceptibility of microorganisms. Upon the payment of the relevant fees within the required timeframe, the patent will be finally granted.
Once the condition is fulfilled, the patent will grant exclusive rights for the commercial use of measuring cards for microbiological determinations in China, specifically for identifying microorganisms and testing their susceptibility to antimicrobial agents. To determine antibiotic resistance phenotypically, isolated microorganisms from a patient sample are cultured in the presence of an antibiotic (which can also refer to a combination of two or more antibiotics) and the growth of the microorganisms in the culture is then tested. In order to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration, the culture must be conducted using different concentrations of the antibiotic. Auxiliary reagents can be added to determine the resistance mechanism as well.
While the patent for these measuring cards is already in force in fifteen member states of the European Patent Convention, BacterOMIC is currently working to obtain a patent for that solution that will be valid in the United States.
Increasing microbial drug resistance is one of the most serious threats to global health. Scope Fluidics is tackling this challenge with its innovative BacterOMIC system, which allows for a comprehensive understanding of resistance mechanisms and the sensitivity of bacteria to all available antibiotics.