T2 Biosystems to Expand into Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands

T2 Biosystems (NASDAQ:TTOO) has announced it has entered into an exclusive agreement that will allow it to distribute diagnostic technologies such as the T2Bacteria and T2Candida Panels into Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.

As quoted in the press release:

“We are proud to announce this distribution agreement with Bionuclear Puerto Rico, which will give us an opportunity to make a positive impact on clinicians and patients in 64 hospitals in the region,” said John McDonough, chairman and chief executive officer at T2 Biosystems. “This expansion will enable us to take yet another step forward in our fight against sepsis and the negative consequences associated with it, including high mortality rates, rising hospital expenses, and growing antimicrobial resistance.”

T2 Biosystems is the company behind the T2Bacteria Panel, which was the first in-vitro diagnostic test to receive approval for a New Technology Add-on Payment (NTAP) by the United States Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The panel is the only FDA-cleared test to identify sepsis-causing bacterial pathogens directly from whole blood without the need to wait for blood culture, and its counterpart for fungal bloodstream infections is the T2Candida Panel, the first and only FDA-cleared direct-from-whole blood diagnostic for detection of fungal pathogens that are associated with sepsis. Both panels provide results in three to five hours instead of days. The products are two of several panels that are approved or in development that are run on the Company’s T2Dx® Instrument, which is powered by miniaturized magnetic resonance (T2MR®) technology.

The distribution agreement follows the recent announcement that T2 Biosystems has been awarded a milestone-based contract of initial value of $6 million with a potential value of up to $69 million, if all contract options are exercised, from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), within the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Click here to read the full press release.