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Bucher Porträts
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rennesens GmbH
A life-saver in EC card format
The company, rennesens, located on the Berlin Buch campus has shown that biotechnology research can also lead to useful products. The company was specifically established for the manufacture and marketing of a new form of rapid test for myocardial infarction.
The test is based on ten years research, at the University of Hong Kong and elsewhere , involving what was a largely unknown protein called h-FABP. This protein, a so-called infarction marker, is released by the heart muscle immediately following a myocardial infarction.
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In early 2003, in a building which was part of the foundation center (photo above) on the campus, rennesens started with the serial production of the test. The test requires only a few drops of blood from the finger tip and a few moments later the user knows if an infarction has occurred or not. The test uses an antibody reaction to show the presence of the infarction marker h-FABP in blood. It is just as easy to use as a pregnancy test.
„The novelty of our marker is that it can be detected only 20 minutes after the occurrence of the first symptoms“, explained marketing manager, Wolfgang Schwarz. These could be chest and stomach pains, nausea, difficulty in breathing and anxiety, which do not always point unambiguously to a myocardial infarction, since they can also occur with many other conditions.
At the earliest, conventional tests provide evidence of the occurrence or not of an infarction two hours after the appearance of the first symptoms. This lost time is valuable since every minute counts for infarction patients. If the problems involving the blood supply can be quickly treated, either by blood-thinning agents or dilation of the blocked vessel, the infarction generally has no serious consequences. However, once the heart tissue dies it cannot be restored. The patients then suffer from reduced pumping function, thromboses or cardiac arrhythmias or even complete heart failure.
 The test is in the form of an EC card and there are two variants : CardioDetect® self for ordinary people and CardioDetect® med for medically qualified people. The test is especially useful for emergency physicians and at-risk patients. It can be obtained from any pharmacy without a prescription at a cost of 24.50 Euros and it has a shelf-life of one year. However, Wolfgang Schwarz emphasizes that, in any case, if a myocardial infarction is suspected, the emergency physician should be called. If there is an infarction, the appropriate measures can be started immediately.
There has been a steady increase in the sales of tests since the start of serial production by rennesens. However, the „break even“ point, the point at which a company’s investment costs are recouped, has not yet been reached, according to Wolfgang Schwarz. He believes this is due to the fact that doctors are generally conservative as far as the introduction of new tests is concerned. Because of this, large-scale studies are currently being conducted on the accuracy of the test in a hospital in Hamburg and another in Paris.
According to rennesens, the accuracy of its current test is 85 percent, the test gives a correct result in 85 out of 100 infarction patients. According to Wolfgang Schwarz, that is very good since even an ECG cannot make a correct diagnosis in the case of every second patient with a suspected infarction. When the results of this study become available, rennesens will step up its marketing again, targeting emergency physicians as well as general practitioners.
Wolfgang Schwarz and his colleagues are confident about the healthy growth of their company. Their optimism comes from the high demand from abroad. Business is good, especially in Arab and Asian countries. There the usefulness of the test is convincing and there are fewer bureaucratic obstacles to the introduction of the test in these countries. At present, rennesens has business partners in 31 countries, and their number is increasing.
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