The Gorbachev Foundation will finance the project.
Ilex Medical Ltd. (TASE:ILX) subsidiary Ilex Biotech Ltd. will install its second Tigris nucleic acid testing (NAT) for blood screening kit at a blood bank in Saint Petersburg, Russia, as part of a project financed by the Gorbachev Foundation. The Tigris costs $500,000. The installation will be carried out during the third quarter of this year.
The blood bank tests 40,000 blood portions a year. Ilex will begin sales of the Tigris system's components during the fourth quarter. These sales are estimated at $650,000 a year over the five-year contract period.
The kits use a NAT system developed by Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS; LSE: NOV; SWX: NOVZ) subsidiary Chiron Corporation to test for the presence of HIV in donated blood. Ilex is a distributor for Chiron blood test kits. Ilex Medical already has franchises from Chiron to distribute the blood test kits in several countries in Europe and Africa.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 15, 2008
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