Kathy
Well-known member
Just thought I'd post what I found on the internet about Biorad, the manufacturers of the USDA BSE test.
BioRad was one of the first group of tests that was assessed by the EC and was found to be the best at the time. The major advantage was that it was simply so good with its antibodies and its separation systems that they could claim rapid and specific testing. The ir problem was that they continued to use proteinase K as the separation system to be sure that what they were finding was mainly PrPsc and not PrPc...because their indication system could not tell the difference.
What we then found was that BioRad was very good indeed at selling and took most of the European market as a result.
The antibodies that BioRad was using were from the French CEA group and hence were the best that anyone had around in 1999...but this is no longer true in 2003 and hence BioRad is to some degree using its ability to have all the contacts in order to retain the market (and is succeeding in this).
BioRad have continued to sell on their ability with high test volumes, easy sample loading and programmable mechanistic methods. The whole lot is carried out on a good machine, which will print out the results and permit computerisation.
http://www.priondata.org/data/A_codiagBC.html#biorad
BioRad was one of the first group of tests that was assessed by the EC and was found to be the best at the time. The major advantage was that it was simply so good with its antibodies and its separation systems that they could claim rapid and specific testing. The ir problem was that they continued to use proteinase K as the separation system to be sure that what they were finding was mainly PrPsc and not PrPc...because their indication system could not tell the difference.
What we then found was that BioRad was very good indeed at selling and took most of the European market as a result.
The antibodies that BioRad was using were from the French CEA group and hence were the best that anyone had around in 1999...but this is no longer true in 2003 and hence BioRad is to some degree using its ability to have all the contacts in order to retain the market (and is succeeding in this).
BioRad have continued to sell on their ability with high test volumes, easy sample loading and programmable mechanistic methods. The whole lot is carried out on a good machine, which will print out the results and permit computerisation.
http://www.priondata.org/data/A_codiagBC.html#biorad
