ABAXIS announces worldwide launch of revolutionary Piccolo Point-of-Care blood analyzer.

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(Healthwire)--July 8, 1996--ABAXIS Inc. (Nasdaq NM:ABAX), a medical products company, launched its Piccolo Point-of-Care Blood Analyzer worldwide, it was announced Monday at the 16th annual meeting of the International Congress of Clinical Chemistry in London, England.

"This is a momentous event in the history of ABAXIS," said Clint H. Severson, ABAXIS' recently appointed president and chief executive officer. "There is a growing trend in the medical testing business to moving clinical testing from the laboratory to the physician's office.

"This can potentially reduce overall costs and enable the physician to obtain the biochemical information required for instant diagnosis and treatment. Our Piccolo System is at the forefront of this trend and we anticipate that it will receive growing acceptance as we continue our marketing efforts worldwide."

Piccolo will be marketed to physicians worldwide through extensive distribution networks.

To date, ABAXIS has established relationships with 20 international distributors. More than 150 Piccolo Systems have been shipped to distributors internationally, including 50 units shipped in June 1996 to the company's Japanese affiliate, Teremecs Co. Ltd., to be sold and distributed through Daiichi Pure Chemical Co. Ltd.

"In the international arena, we have made tremendous progress in identifying distributors and initiating product introduction. The U.S. market, however, has been a bit more cumbersome. We have received our manufacturing license from the State of California which now enables ABAXIS to ship Piccolo in the United States, and have trained the Baxter sales representatives on the System," Severson continued.

"The first Piccolo System was shipped in the U.S. domestic market in May 1996. We also have doubled the number of direct sales managers and have signed up four regional distributors. We have generated interest from national reference laboratories to utilize the technology in satellite facilities. The process of market segmentation continues to be the focus of our domestic marketing and sales efforts," he concluded.

Founded in 1989, ABAXIS develops, manufactures and markets portable blood analysis systems for use in any patient-care setting to provide clinicians with rapid blood constituent measurements. The system consists of a compact, 6.9-kilogram, portable analyzer and a series of 8-cm diameter single-use plastic disks, called reagent discs, that contain all the reagents necessary to perform a fixed menu of tests.

The system can be operated with minimal training and perform multiple routine tests on whole blood using either venous or fingerstick samples. The system provides test results in less than 14 minutes with the precision and accuracy equivalent to a clinical laboratory.

CONTACT: ABAXIS Inc., Sunnyvale

Ting Lu, 408/745-6851

or

Pondel Parsons & Wilkinson, Los Angeles 

Rob Whetstone, 310/207-9300

Internet: [e-mail]