LMNX Luminex Corporation

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 19, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Luminex Corporation (NASDAQ: LMNX) today announced that it has received CE-IVD marking for its NxTAG® Respiratory Pathogen Panel.  The Panel detects 21 clinically-relevant viral and bacterial respiratory pathogens, including the atypical bacteria Chlamydophila pneumoniae, Mycoplasma pneumoniae, and Legionella pneumophila. The NxTAG Respiratory Pathogen Panel is the only respiratory assay that easily enables laboratories to simultaneously detect 21 respiratory pathogens in a single closed tube system that scales to accommodate changes in throughput needed to respond to seasonal changes in demand, such as during flu season.

The NxTAG Respiratory Pathogen Panel requires only minutes of hands-on time with no upstream reagent preparation. The simplified workflow allows extracted samples to be added directly to pre-plated, lyophilized reagents. The tubes are then sealed and ready for closed tube amplification and subsequent detection using the Luminex MAGPIX® instrument. The innovative tube strip design offers laboratories the flexibility to manage variable sample demand by processing a single sample or up to as many as 96 samples per run, without wasting consumables or reagents, or the need to have full batches. Total turnaround time is just over three hours for 96 samples (excluding extraction).

In addition, the accompanying SYNCT™ Software provides a comprehensive approach to data analysis and reporting, and enables the NxTAG Respiratory Pathogen Panel to integrate easily into any laboratory. Any of a number of targets can be selected by laboratories to customize their testing panel.

"With the NxTAG Respiratory Pathogen Panel, we found that shorter hands-on and turnaround times, together with a simpler closed tube process, made for an impressively streamlined workflow.  The workflow, combined with a small instrument footprint, really answered our lab's need for fast, reliable, comprehensive respiratory testing," said Professor Hans H. Hirsch, M.D., Head of the Division Infection Diagnostics and Transplantation & Clinical Virology at the University of Basel, Switzerland.

"As a leader in multiplexed solutions, we are excited to launch the next generation NxTAG Respiratory Pathogen Panel which delivers expanded coverage and a simple closed tube workflow, combined with the throughput and quality of results established by the xTAG Respiratory Viral Panel," said Thomas Pracht, Managing Director, EMEIA, Luminex Corporation.  "With the CE-IVD marking of the NxTAG Respiratory Pathogen Panel, we continue to focus on delivering solutions that address our customers' productivity needs."

To learn more, please visit Luminex at: http://www.luminexcorp.com/NxTAG-RPP

Why Test for Respiratory Pathogens?
Many commonly encountered respiratory pathogens (viral and bacterial) have similar clinical presentation, making diagnosis based on symptoms alone very difficult. Influenza viruses commonly cause respiratory illness, but many other pathogens may cause significant impact on patient health as well. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), as one example, is the most common cause of severe respiratory illness in young children, as well as a leading cause of death from respiratory illness in those aged 65 years and older.¹

Clinicians need to accurately detect the respiratory pathogen causing illness in their patients in order to effectively prescribe treatment and control the spread of infection. Laboratories need respiratory assays that can rapidly and efficiently detect these relevant pathogens with minimal hands-on time and no post-PCR handling to meet laboratory, physician, and patient needs.

About Luminex Corporation
Luminex is committed to applying its passion for innovation toward creating breakthrough solutions to improve health and advance science. The company is transforming global healthcare and life-science research through the development, manufacturing and marketing of proprietary instruments and assays utilizing xMAP® open-architecture multi-analyte platform, MultiCode® real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and multiplex PCR-based technologies, that deliver cost-effective rapid results to clinicians and researchers. Luminex's technologies are commercially available worldwide and in use in leading clinical laboratories, as well as major pharmaceutical, diagnostic, biotechnology and life-science companies. Luminex is meeting the needs of customers in markets as diverse as clinical diagnostics, pharmaceutical drug discovery, biomedical research including genomic and proteomic research, personalized medicine, biodefense research and food safety. For further information on Luminex Corporation and the latest advances in multiplexing using award winning technology, please visit http://www.luminexcorp.com/.

Media Contact 
Christine Valle, 512.219.8020
Sr. Manager, Global Marketing
cvalle@luminexcorp.com

Investor Contact
Harriss Currie, 512.219.8020
Sr. Vice President of Finance and CFO
hcurrie@luminexcorp.com

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SOURCE Luminex Corporation