GE Healthcare launches Drawbridge Health blood collection biz

GE Healthcare (NYSE:GE) today launched Drawbridge Health, a new blood collection business looking to develop technology designed to integrate draw, collection and sample stabilization into a single device.

The under-development technology is being designed to support room temperature shipping and streamlined downstream processing, which the company said will ensure more reliable, accurate results, GE said.

Drawbridge is hopeful its new blood testing hardware will enable better patient-consumer engagement and drive a shift from reacting to tracking of blood health.

“At GE we share technology, markets, structure and knowledge across our varied businesses, which uniquely positions us to tackle many issues, including this one. With Drawbridge Health, we are combining technology from GE Global Research, expertise from GE Healthcare and business models from GE Ventures to offer a simple, safe and more efficient solution that can help save time, money and lives,” GE Ventures new business creation managing director Risa Stack said in a prepared statement.

Former molecular diagnostics company Gensignia Life Sciences CEO Lee McCracken is joining Drawbridge as its CEO, GE Healthcare said.

“At Drawbridge Health, we have a tremendous opportunity to uniquely enable not only effortless access to diagnostic testing, but to also transform how diagnostics companies and healthcare providers interact with their patient-consumers. The current sample testing process is inconvenient and challenging for patients and medical providers, alike. It requires clinical processing equipment, often a technician specifically trained to draw blood, plus a trip to the doctor’s office or hospital. By combining world class GE technology and a talented founding team to address an important market need, Drawbridge Health is well positioned to transform diagnostic testing for healthcare stakeholders, testing laboratories, patients and consumers,” Drawbridge Health CEO McCracken said in a press release.

Blood and plasma supplies business Haemonetics (NYSE:HAE) saw shares drop slightly this morning, down 0.4% at $58.40 as of 9:51 a.m. EST.

Earlier this month, GE Healthcare inked a multi-year, non-exclusive licensing and professional services deal with medical imaging analysis company DiA Imaging Analysis, according to a press release from the company.

The post GE Healthcare launches Drawbridge Health blood collection biz appeared first on MassDevice.

from MassDevice http://ift.tt/2nelTQV