By Lori Sichtermann

Douglas C. Bryant

With more than 80,000 diagnostics instruments installed worldwide, Abbott Diagnostics maintains a presence in virtually every lab and hospital. Headquartered in the outskirts of Chicago, Abbott Diagnostics is focused on advancing patient care by developing innovative tests to diagnose and monitor diseases, as well as instrument systems and software solutions designed to enhance laboratory workflow and productivity.

In a recent conversation with Clinical Lab Products, Douglas C. Bryant, vice president, global commercial operations for Abbott Diagnostics, commented on lab industry challenges and what Abbott is doing to address them.

CLP: Please provide background information on Abbott’s diagnostic division.
Douglas C. Bryant: Abbott Diagnostics is a global leader in in vitro diagnostics. We offer a broad range of instrument systems and tests to the diagnostics market, which includes hospitals, reference labs, blood banks, physician offices, and clinics. Immunodiagnostics, the science of measuring biochemical reactions to detect diseases and medical conditions, and to assess the general health of patients, is the core component of our business. Additionally, other Abbott businesses dedicated to diagnostics include Abbott Diabetes Care, Abbott Molecular, and Abbott Point-of-Care.

CLP: What needs does Abbott satisfy within the diagnostics market?
Bryant: Depending on the size and scope of a laboratory’s operations, Abbott Diagnostics provides a wide range of solutions. Abbott’s customers continue to be challenged to do more work with fewer trained technologists. Often, our efforts start with providing instrument solutions; however, Abbott also can assist in preanalytics and postanalytics, process improvement, information management, and laboratory design.

Another key need that Abbott Diagnostics addresses is enhancing the efficiency of the testing process. For example, the ARCHITECT® ci8200, our integrated chemistry and immunoassay system, utilizes a unique retest sample handler, allowing technologists to interrupt routine testing to process STAT tests immediately without compromising turnaround time or throughput.

CLP: What kinds of products does Abbott offer the industry?
Bryant: With chemistry, hematology, immunoassay, and blood screening, Abbott Diagnostics’ tests and instruments serve a wide audience. Abbott offers one of the broadest assay menus covering 11 therapeutic areas, including cardiac, cancer, and infectious disease. We also recently expanded our routine and special chemistries menu.

Abbott also offers a family of systems designed to meet all laboratory volume requirements. Two of our key families include CELL-DYN® hematology analyzers and ARCHITECT immunoassay and clinical chemistry systems. Additionally, our AxSYM® automated immunoassay instrument system continues to meet the needs of many laboratories with its broad testing menu.

CLP: What new products will the company release soon?
Bryant: Abbott Diagnostics provides a family of systems, and we continue to add to this family. This year, three new hematology analyzers are being added to the CELL-DYN family. The first one, CELL-DYN Sapphire™, already is available outside of the United States.

In the ARCHITECT family, two new systems will be unveiled at upcoming industry trade shows. The ARCHITECT i1000SR™ is a smaller immunoassay system that incorporates the benefits of our unique retest sample handler. On the chemistry side, the ARCHITECT c16000™ has been designed for high-volume laboratories. I can envision that some of those familiar with the ARCHITECT family may think this new instrument will be two ARCHITECT c8000’s hooked together. But once they see the c16000, they’ll find that it’s actually the same size and footprint of the ARCHITECT c8000 but with double the processing capacity. Both of these new instruments will use common reagents, common software, common sample management, and the common detection technology of our current ARCHITECT systems.

Finally, there’s the expansion of Abbott’s lab-automation capabilities and menu completion. We’ll be offering a broader range of automation solutions, both equipment and software, that can be customized to support a lab’s unique workflow needs. Additionally, Abbott continues to complete panels and expand test menus.

CLP: The company states that its products have helped transform the practice of medical diagnosis from an art to a science, virtually creating the modern diagnostics industry; how has Abbott helped to shape the industry?
Bryant: Scientific leadership has shaped Abbott Diagnostics’ history with key discoveries in disease detection. We started in the early 1970s with hepatitis testing for blood banks, and we continued to expand and grow our diagnostic portfolio. From the first HIV test in 1985 to the first automated prostate specific antigen test, Abbott scientists have made important discoveries that have impacted the medical community and patient care.

Abbott engineering also has shaped the industry with automation advances built into many of our diagnostic instruments. Early on, our IMx® and TDx® instruments led the way in automating many manual immunoassay tests. Later, AxSYM became the most prominent immunoassay instrument in the world. Today, our ARCHITECT system has become the world’s foremost integrated immunoassay and clinical chemistry platform.

CLP:Where do you see the industry heading?
Bryant: Consolidation and standardization will continue to drive the industry as laboratories look to converge to single-source suppliers. Labor shortages will continue to exist. Therefore, labs will continue to be challenged with reducing costs. Labs also will continue to look to companies for solutions that reduce labor-intensive tasks and improve the efficiency of the diagnostic testing process.

CLP: What is Abbott doing to continue the growth of the industry?
Bryant: Abbott works with numerous industry organizations to advance the recognition of diagnostics and medical devices in health care. Additionally, Abbott scientists are working to develop new biomarkers to address unmet medical needs, and are evaluating opportunities to align diagnostic tests with new therapeutics to improve patient outcomes.

CLP: Where do you see Abbott in 5 years?
Bryant: Within a 5-year development cycle, Abbott Diagnostics will have completed the entire family of ARCHITECT immunoassay and clinical chemistry systems, and I anticipate that we’ll have the most complete and competitive test menu worldwide. Our research and development efforts also will have produced novel, new markers to address unmet medical needs within our primary focus of cardiac, cancer, and infectious diseases.

CLP: What challenges has the company faced, and what has the company done to overcome these issues?
Bryant: As a large, global supplier, one of the challenges we face is continuing to find new ways to enhance customer service worldwide. During 2003, to meet the increasing global demand for diagnostic testing, Abbott made a $250 million investment in Europe, expanding three existing manufacturing facilities and opening a new facility in Longford, Ireland. With more than 50% of our diagnostics sales outside of the United States, this investment provided the additional capacity required to service our global diagnostics business. Additionally, we were able to reduce the complexity of our manufacturing operations and have sites dedicated to key disease states.

CLP: Any final thoughts?
Bryant: Abbott Diagnostics provides a wide range of solutions covering numerous diagnostic technologies and platforms. As an industry leader, Abbott continues to invest in research and development to discover the next breakthrough in diagnostics, and we are committed to being a valued partner to laboratories by making it easy for customers to do business with us.

Lori Sichtermann is associate editor of Clinical Lab Products.