Doctor on the team will be boost for test kit firm

Mar 17 2008 by Andrew Mernin, The Journal

MEDICAL testing kit maker IDS has signed a deal with a world famous doctor which could help thousands of sufferers of growth hormone defects and provide a huge shot in the arm to the firm’s profits.

The South Tyneside business has entered a partnership with Dr Martin Bidlingmaier, a world-renowned doctor whose growth hormone detection technology has been used to test athletes in the Olympic Games.

Through the collaboration, IDS will develop five ground-breaking products which will be ready for market by next year and are expected to significantly boost the firm’s takings.

The products will be used to detect growth hormone defects and high blood pressure which could help thousands of people across the world including new born babies, the elderly and people with dwarfism.

IDS sales and marketing director Tony Wilks said the products, which will be sold globally, could be “massive” in terms of boosting the firm’s sales since they will take the company into a market worth around £20m a year.

Mr Wilks said: “Dr Bidlingmaier’s reputation and academic knowledge are immensely valuable to IDS’s future strategy of automation, especially in the expanding and highly lucrative markets of growth disorders and hypertension.

“We believe his reputation with key researchers worldwide, especially within the clinical pharmaceutical industry and academia, will further enhance our international profile and positively impact sales.”

Dr Bidlingmaier is a world leader in growth metabolism and is also chair of the working group on growth hormone of the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry.

He was part of the team that developed tests to detect the abuse of growth hormone in athletes which were used by the World Anti-doping Agency at the Olympic Games in Athens and the Torino Winter Olympics.

PAGE TWO: Dr Bidlingmaier’s legacy.