Immucor Awarded National Three-Year GPO Agreement for Blood Bank Reagents, Automation with Premier

Sept. 6, 2012 - PRLog -- NORCROSS, Ga. – Immucor, Inc., a global leader in supplying blood bank reagents and automation to the blood transfusion industry, today announced an agreement with Premier, one of the largest healthcare group purchasing alliances in the United States. The three-year agreement provides Immucor’s market-leading portfolio of blood bank reagents and automation to the nationwide network of healthcare providers served by Premier.
   
Effective November 1, 2012, Premier members will receive contract-negotiated pricing and terms when they choose Immucor’s reagents and blood bank automation systems for pre-transfusion diagnostic testing. Immucor’s offerings include the largest and most complete line of Traditional Reagents, Echo®, an instrument specially designed for small-volume laboratories with a benchtop footprint; and NEO®, an instrument specially designed for high-volume laboratories with the highest throughput available in the industry. Both instruments feature the broad test menu available instant access, fast turnaround times and use Immucor’s exclusive Capture® technology for antibody screening and identification.  

“Immucor’s selection by Premier demonstrates an increasing interest in Immucor’s innovative instrument-reagent systems to automate and advance blood bank operations at more healthcare institutions, regardless of size, volume, or complexity,” says Sandy Athenson, vice president of North American commercial operations for Immucor. “Immucor’s portfolio of pre-transfusion diagnostics systems includes scalable and flexible automation options that will help Premier’s members support quality and cost-effective outcomes.”

For three decades, Immucor has developed, manufactured, and supported market-leading instrument-reagent systems that enable best practice operations and achieve better patient outcomes at hospitals, reference labs, and donor centers. Immucor is the leading transfusion medicine technology choice in the United States and Canada. “Transfusion medicine innovation is our only focus at Immucor,” says Athenson. “This agreement adds momentum to Immucor’s goal of seeing that anyone, anywhere in need of blood gets the right blood that is safe, accessible and affordable.”

Premier will include Immucor among its list of preferred suppliers for blood bank reagents and automation. Purchasing members in Premier’s alliance network represent 40% of U.S. hospitals and health systems, as well as 400,000 physicians and 86,000 non-acute healthcare sites that collectively purchased $43B of healthcare supplies, services, and solutions in 2011.

About the Premier Healthcare Alliance
Premier is a performance improvement alliance of more than 2,600 U.S. hospitals and 86,000-plus other healthcare sites using the power of collaboration to lead the transformation to high quality, cost-effective care. Owned by hospitals, health systems, and other providers, Premier maintains the nation's most comprehensive repository of clinical, financial and outcomes information, and operates a leading healthcare purchasing network. More information is available at http://www.premierinc.com.

About Immucor
Founded in 1982, Immucor manufactures and sells a complete line of reagents and systems used by hospitals, reference laboratories, and donor centers to detect and identify certain properties of the cell and serum components of blood prior to transfusion. Immucor markets a complete family of automated instrumentation for all of its market segments. For more information about Immucor, visit http://www.immucor.com, or call 1.855.IMMUCOR.

Immucor Contact:
Michele Howard
Vice President of Corporate Development and Communications
770.441.2051