May 11, 2022 – Babson Diagnostics and BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company today announced the expansion of a strategic partnership to move blood sample collection into new care settings, including enabling patients to collect blood samples at home for diagnostic testing.
Since 2019, the two companies have collaborated to create a capillary blood collection and testing system, now in advanced development, to enable laboratory-quality, small-volume capillary blood collection at retail settings by team members with no previous experience in blood collection.
Under the expanded agreement, the companies will continue research and development to enable self-collection, mobile services and at-home collection. Babson and BD also will expand the types of blood tests that are possible through small-volume blood collection beyond primary care-oriented tests, and they also plan to develop diagnostic tests for pediatric use.
Over this long-term collaboration, Babson and BD are advancing development of the blood testing ecosystem, which includes BD’s next generation capillary collection technology and Babson’s proprietary automated sample-handling and analytical technologies. These have been designed to work together to enable blood testing that requires only one-tenth the sample volume of traditional venipuncture methods without sacrificing quality, accuracy, or the number and types of tests that are possible.
“This is a paradigm-shifting solution that addresses multiple unmet needs within the current health care system,” said Brooke Story, president of Integrated Diagnostics Solutions for BD. “Because it is less invasive and more convenient than the traditional venous blood draw method, capillary blood collection may lead to an improved patient experience, which in turn could help health care providers see better compliance among patients for routine blood testing.”