Please select your Region.

Please select your Region.

News & Topics

May 18, 2011

Rohm and ARKRAY to Create a Market Alliance
Tie-up in Micro-Volume Blood Test System

ARKRAY, Inc. (HQ: Kyoto city; President and CEO Shigeru Doi; herein “ARKRAY”) and Rohm Co., Ltd. (HQ: Kyoto city; President Satoshi Sawamura; herein “Rohm”) signed a contract on March 14, 2011 wherein ARKRAY shall distribute Rohm's micro-volume blood test system for clinical use in Japan. As a pioneer of diabetic testing, ARKRAY has a wide range of products from HbA1c measurement to self-monitoring blood glucose testing, and with one of the nation's best sales networks in the clinical testing field, it has been leading the market for over 40 years. Rohm, which has been selling this device since 2008, has developed this micro-volume blood test system based on micro processing techniques cultivated through LSI development and μTAS technology through biochips development over the past 10 years. Integrating both parties' strengths, ARKRAY and Rohm will now collaborate in sales mainly targeting the clinical test market.

Aim

The purpose of this partnership is to meet the medical needs of the domestic clinical market for high-speed testing of very small blood volumes with high accuracy by using Rohm's micro-volume blood test system (OEM product name: SPOTCHEMTM BANALYST SI-3610) as an OEM product through domestic clinical market, into which ARKRAY has built networks over the years.

Background of sales collaboration in micro-volume blood test system

Rohm, who is entering into medical field based on their semiconductor knowledge, and ARKRAY, a pioneer in diabetes testing with strong sales channel in domestic clinical market, are coming together to create market alliance, aiming for better solutions of medical needs.
This partnership will lead to enhancement of ARKRAY's existing clinical test device lineup as well as the possibility of providing solutions to a wider range of customers. Meanwhile, Rohm will increase its share in the clinical test market through expansion of its distribution routes.

Content of sales collaboration

ARKRAY will receive OEM supply of micro-volume blood test system and its consumables in Japan from Rohm.
ARKRAY will be the contact point for post-sale services of products distributed by ARKRAY.

On sale:

Mobile centrifugal clinical chemistry analyzer “SPOTCHEMTM BANALYST SI-3610”
Compact size blood testing system using μTAS technology*
Micro-volume blood sampling: 4μL (9.5μL for hsCRP) per 1 test item. Reduced burden of collecting blood, especially with children.
High speed test: No pre-processing of blood is necessary. Test time is 7 min and 30 sec / 7 min and 40 sec, depending on the test item.
Special reagent for SPOTCHEMTM BANALYST
HbA1c (hemoglobin A1c) A diabetes marker reflecting the average blood glucose value over the past 1-2 months
CRP/hsCRP An inflammation marker indicating high values especially for bacterial infection
hsCRP means high sensitivity CRP, which can quantify CRP from a low concentration range.

Future schedule

This product will be displayed at ARKRAY's booth in 54th Annual Meeting of the Japan Diabetes Society (May 19 (Thu) to May 21 (Sat), 2011, at Sapporo city, Hokkaido). Its launch is scheduled for autumn 2011.
ARKRAY and Rohm will continue to maintain a wide variety of product lines to fulfill the needs of medical front and to contribute to the health and well-being of people all over the world.

Explanation of term

*μTAS (micro TAS) technology
This is an abbreviation for Micro Total Analysis System, where multiple chemical operations are effectively performed in a short period of time by integrating various fluid devices on a several millimeter or centimeter square chip.

Profile of Rohm Co., Ltd.

Rohm Co., Ltd. (President: Satoshi Sawamura) was founded in 1958. Rohm provides a wide range of system solutions in the consumer device market, cell-phone/communication device, and automobile-related fields. Through its global development/sales networks, Rohm provides highly qualified and reliable LSI and discrete semiconductor products to the customers. Headquarters are located in Kyoto city of Kyoto prefecture and it has 21,560 employees. The consolidated sales in March 2011 was 341.9 billion yen. Please see http://www.rohm.co.jp/ for more details.