GAITHERSBURG, Md., May 30, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- OpGen, Inc. (NASDAQ:OPGN) announced today that they will be recognized with the 2nd annual Ignaz Semmelweis Award for their commitment to safe medical care through the development of rapid diagnostics to combat multi-drug resistant infections. This award is handed out annually by the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths (RID).
“On behalf of our employees and our scientific collaborators, we are honored to be recognized by RID for our innovative approach to combatting the spread of antibiotic resistance, one of the pressing public health issues of our time,” said Evan Jones, Chairman and CEO of OpGen. “Our technology brings bioinformatics and genomic analysis together to rapidly identify resistant antibiotic strains in hospitals and health systems. This approach can help treating physicians to more appropriately manage patients earlier, leading to better outcomes, and help institutions prevent the spread of multi-drug resistant microbes. This use of knowledge and technology follows in the tradition of Ignaz Semmelweiss, who pioneered antiseptic procedures in hospitals and introduced hand-washing to prevent the spread of infection.”
OpGen is developing the Acuitas Lighthouse® database of pathogens which leverages disruptive technologies aimed to shift the paradigm for managing infectious diseases. Through CLIA-certified clinical laboratory services, OpGen provides rapid detection and analysis of antibiotic resistance and high resolution microbial sequence analysis. OpGen’s FDA-cleared, IVD products rapidly identify pathogens in positive blood cultures.
For the past 13 years, RID has promoted the life-saving steps of cleaning and screening to prevent deadly and costly hospital-acquired infections (HAIs). The Ignaz Semmelweis Award is given to daring innovators willing to challenge the prevailing knowledge of the time in the cause of safer medical care.
"RID has only one goal: To save lives. Screening patients to identify those carrying drug-resistant superbugs will help save their lives and protect other patients as well," said Betsy McCaughey, Ph.D., Chairman of RID. "RID applauds OpGen for providing the research and technology to make screening possible. OpGen exemplifies RID's guiding principle that technological innovation will enable us to defeat the scourge of hospital infections. "
About Antibiotic Resistance
Every year, more than two million people in the U.S. become ill from antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and 23,000 of them die. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that antibiotic resistance causes $20 billion in excess direct healthcare costs and the report “Antimicrobial Resistance: Taking a Crisis for the Health and Wealth of Nations” (Review on Antimicrobial Resistance) predicts that antimicrobial resistance will be a bigger killer than cancer in the year 2050 with a projected 10 million deaths annually. Multi-drug resistant organisms (MDROs), or superbugs, are a global healthcare issue and the CDC and other public health organizations have called for new molecular technologies for MDRO testing that can detect more quickly and accurately, improving infection control programs and providing hospitals with faster, more targeted antibiotic response and stewardship programs.
About the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths (RID)
The Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths (RID) is a not-for-profit educational campaign committed to correcting a deadly problem that kills more people each year in the U.S. than AIDS, breast cancer, and auto accidents combined. For more information, please visit: www. http://hospitalinfection.org/.
About OpGen
OpGen, Inc. is harnessing the power of informatics and genomic analysis to provide complete solutions for patient, hospital and network-wide infection prevention and treatment. Learn more at www.opgen.com and follow OpGen on Twitter and LinkedIn.
OpGen®, Acuitas®, Acuitas Lighthouse® and QuickFISH® are registered trademarks of OpGen, Inc.