Denis Andrieu


Vice President - EME Commercial Operations - Russia, Turkey, Middle East, Iran, Caucasus, Central Asia, Mongolia

bioMérieux S.A.


Tell us about yourself. What are you showcasing at Medlab Middle East 2022?


bioMérieux is thrilled to once again be at Medlab Middle East to showcase some exciting new innovations to add to our solutions for Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS), Respiratory Tract Infections/COVID-19 and Infectious Disease.

We’re looking forward to partnering with our customers and distributors to push back the boundaries of in vitro diagnostics to further improve patient care with VITEK® MS PRIME, BIOFIRE® RP2.1plus, BIOFIRE® BCID, VIDAS® TB-IGRA and much more.

This year’s theme is ‘Connect with innovation that’s changing the face of diagnostics’. What does innovation in diagnostics mean to you?


bioMérieux’s motto is “Pioneering Diagnostics”, so innovation is at the core of our company’s DNA, and along with our entrepreneurial tradition something that has been our driving force for over 55 years.

Innovation is essential to meet public health challenges across the globe, and our R&D teams combine their knowledge of medicine with emerging techniques and new technologies to combat infectious diseases worldwide. Diagnostics more than ever plays a key role to play in healthcare challenges, as the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us.

To what extent will emerging technologies such as AI and big data influence the medical laboratory industry?


Data analysis is here to stay and advanced analytics that provide data insights are, and will, continue to be powerful tools for labs & hospitals worldwide. It’s important to gain a holistic view and start connecting diagnostics to therapeutic decisions and connect the decisions to patient outcomes.

Data analysis is already at the heart of our AMS solution strategy both for inside the lab and outside the lab. We already have: MYLA® for consolidating analytical data; EPISEQ® CS helping to fight healthcare-associated infections; Clinical Decision Support Software (CDSS) addressing antibiotic prescription needs in hospital ; CLARION™ connecting diagnostic data to inform about the medico-economic impact of diagnostics and AMS.

What other trends do you see emerging in the coming months that will impact the medical laboratory industry?


The COVID-19 health crisis has been a real wake-up call: from healthcare professionals and organisations to the general public, everyone is now aware of the vital role that diagnostic tests play in combatting infectious disease.

This situation has intensified the fundamental need for diagnostic tools that can be performed in close proximity to patients and deliver rapid, reliable results. Of course, molecular biology is perfectly adapted to meeting all of these needs.

We have also seen how the pandemic highlights the importance of making testing accessible in pharmacies, at the doctor’s office, and even at home. These are the major trends that we are observing while tests naturally continue to meet the highest quality standards.

What have you learned from the pandemic from a diagnostics or lab perspective?


This pandemic has clearly revealed the vital role that diagnostics plays in the healthcare chain, demonstrating its importance for screening, patient management and epidemiological surveillance. Moreover, the pandemic has accelerated the underlying demands of our sector: the need to react very quickly in response to emerging infectious diseases, to provide rapid and reliable tests that can be performed in close proximity to patients, and to design tools that support decision making by using data as efficiently as possible.

We will rise to these challenges by continuing to invest in research and innovation to develop solutions that provide more high medical value information while meeting the highest standards in response to the expectations of lab professionals and physicians.

What, if anything, will you be doing differently in the post-pandemic era?


Like the rest of the world, we have devoted a great deal of energy to fighting the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. This health crisis must not, however, cause us to lose sight of the many other infectious disease threats that also require our utmost attention. Once again, diagnostics has and will have a key role to play in the continuum of care.

Antimicrobial resistance, which has become even more serious due to the overutilisation of antibiotics during the pandemic, remains an essential focus of our strategy. The fight against sepsis, which each year affects 49 million people, of whom 20% do not survive, is also an important priority for us.

Is there anything else you would like to add?


Our motivation to uphold bioMérieux’s public health mission has been bolstered by the ongoing health crisis, which has produced an even stronger level of engagement across our workforce, regardless of an employee’s job.

Contributing collectively to the common good: is this not the most rewarding role a company can play?