Biomerica, a global medical technology company, has been contracted to develop a new food allergy test for the Kyowa Medex Company in Japan, a subsidiary of Kyowa Hakko Kogyo, a leading Japanese pharmaceutical company. Terms of the development agreement were not disclosed.
Made using foods specifically endemic to Japan, the new test will be semi-quantitative ELISA format test kit and will be able to detect specific IgG in human serum to 14 food allergens. The kit will initially be sold in Japan for research purposes.
Biomerica's allergy test technology simultaneously detects if a patient is allergic to different foods through the use of only a few drops of blood. Food allergies are normally difficult to diagnose because the symptoms often mimic other illnesses. The Biomerica technology determines whether there is an allergy to a specific food based on the amount of antibody in human serum.
"Food allergy is becoming more and more of a high-profile issue in Japan. We believe that the Japanese medical society will respond favourably to this new product," commented Dr. Akira Horiguchi, Project Leader of Kyowa Medex.