Biomagnetics, Bright Dairy enter into distribution agreement for China

Sep 23 2009

Biomagnetics Diagnostics Corp., (PINK SHEETS:BMGP) a developer of revolutionary diagnostic systems and technology for HIV, hepatitis, tuberculosis, and malaria detection, today announced it has entered into an agreement with Bright Dairy, which is the third largest dairy products producer and marketer in China. Under the terms of the agreement, Bright dairy will become the exclusive distributor for China of the portable diagnostics system and assay for bovine tuberculosis.

“We are very excited about this agreement as it will launch us into the worldwide bovine tuberculosis testing market. This affliction costs the worldwide cattle industry billions of dollars per year in losses and is a major health concern for both cattle and humans,” commented Clayton Hardman, CEO of Biomagnetics Diagnostics Corp. “The handheld unit we plan to offer Bright Dairy for distribution throughout China is the same technology platform developed by a U.S. National Laboratory that we will use to enter the market for malaria testing.” Our eventual goal is to be the worldwide leader in handheld diagnostic systems for both of the bovine TB and malaria testing markets. This agreement moves us significantly toward this goal.

Bright Dairy is stepping up efforts to improve its raw milk production quality and the raising and breeding of its dairy herds and bulls. Part of this program involves widescale testing of the herd for bovine tuberculosis. Bright Dairy and its parent company own 21 large scale dairy farms and leases grazing land for its other dairy cattle. In addition, the company buys raw milk from about 500 large scale dairy farming cooperatives.

In humans, the vast majority of cases of tuberculosis are caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. However, TB can be caused by a number of other bacteria, of which Mycobacterium bovis, "bovine tuberculosis" is one of the more prevalent and has the widest host range of all TB bacteria. Bovine TB appears to be increasing at a similar rate to the total number of cases of TB, and HIV is the greatest factor for progression of TB infection to active TB disease.