First-of-its-Kind Health Economic Analysis Shows Early Use of Fast Diagnostics in Sepsis Care Could Save Thousands of Lives in Canada and Reduce Health System Costs Across G7 Countries

42,000 Canadians are hospitalized with bloodstream infections each year. New findings show fast diagnostics could prevent 2,400 of those patients annually from progressing to sepsis and save $42M for the Canadian healthcare system.

SAINT-LAURENT, Quebec, April 20, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- bioMérieux, a world leader in in vitro diagnostics, announces the publication of a multi-country health economic analysis assessing the impact of deploying fast identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing (ID/AST) early in the care pathway for patients with bloodstream infections at high-risk of sepsis.

The analysis is the first to provide evidence that early use of fast diagnostics can reduce preventable deterioration into sepsis, improve patient outcomes, and generate substantial cost savings for healthcare systems consistently across all studied countries. Conducted by the Office of Health Economics (OHE), one of the world’s leading independent health economics research organizations, the analysis examined healthcare systems across Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

“Sepsis remains one of the leading preventable causes of death in Canada. Although a national sepsis action plan has been proposed, its adoption and implementation remain uneven across the country. This analysis gives policymakers, hospital networks, and provincial health authorities the evidence they need to act. Every Canadian patient with a bloodstream infection deserves access to fast diagnostics when it matters most,” explains Jessica Blavignac, Director of Scientific and Medical Affairs, bioMérieux.

Unmet Needs in Sepsis Management
Sepsis, a life-threatening reaction to an infection, is responsible for 21 million deaths globally each year.ⁱ Sepsis is the top preventable cause of death in Canada, and one in 18 deaths in Canada are sepsis related.ⁱⁱ The initial hours of sepsis management are critical, and targeted antibiotic treatment is a key determinant of survival. Yet conventional diagnostic methods take two to three days to deliver results, forcing high-stakes treatment decisions with incomplete information.ⁱⁱⁱ

As a result, nearly 1 in 5 bloodstream infection patients receive an inappropriate initial treatment increasing the risk of deterioration and driving higher costs for the hospital and health system.^iv

The model-based health economic analysis evaluates what would happen if fast ID/AST were systematically used early in the care pathway before clinical deterioration occurs. Built using real‑world hospital data from France, the health economic evaluation incorporates epidemiology, care pathways, costs, progression to sepsis, mortality, and long‑term consequences over a 13‑month time frame. It was then validated and adapted for each G7 country using local data inputs including incidence, diagnostic testing patterns, and country‑specific healthcare costs, together with clinical expert review to ensure alignment with national practices and standard of care. Across Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, the findings are consistent.

Faster Identification Significantly Improves Patient Outcomes
Previous studies have demonstrated that fast ID/AST technologies can return actionable diagnostic results within less than 30 hours, substantially shortening time‑to‑results compared to the standard of care in each country. The OHE analysis builds on this established evidence by quantifying the clinical impact of deploying these faster diagnostics early in the care pathway.

Across all seven countries, the results from the model-based health economic evaluation show that early access to diagnostic information can prevent thousands of patients with bloodstream infection from progressing to sepsis or septic shock annually. Notably, the number of reported sepsis cases fall by an average of more than 20%. This leads to fewer sepsis related deaths and a significant reduction in long-term post sepsis complications, improving patient’s quality of life.

A System-Wide Return on Investment
Across all G7 countries, the evaluation shows that deploying fast ID/AST early in the care pathway is consistently cost saving, regardless of how each health system is structured or financed.

Importantly, 53% to 83% of all savings occur during the initial hospitalization, when the clinical and economic consequences of deterioration are most concentrated^v because early diagnostic information prevents the likelihood that patients progress into one of the most resource intensive stages of sepsis care.

Fast ID/AST deliver an estimated $1,000 in cost savings per patient in Canada, totaling approximately $42 million in annual savings. These savings reflect both avoided acute phase costs and reduced long-term complications.^iv

The Case for Policy Change
Today, diagnostics represent only a small fraction of healthcare spending, yet remain constrained by value frameworks that fail to capture their broader health system and population-level impact, bundled reimbursement models that treat them as costs rather than value generating tools, and misaligned incentives where laboratories bear the expense while savings are realized by other parts of the health system.

“This analysis provides Canadian policymakers with compelling evidence that fast diagnostics deliver remarkable value for both patients and our health system – far exceeding their upfront costs. Tens of millions in annual savings across the country and life-saving measures for thousands of Canadians is evidence enough for provincial and hospital networks to reform how diagnostics are valued, funded and integrated into clinical pathways,” says John Osiecki, PhD, Vice President, Medical Affairs, North America, bioMérieux.

These modelled findings make a compelling case for a prospective real-world study to confirm their impact in clinical practice, and in the meantime, they chart a clear way forward: update reimbursement structures, strengthen diagnostic capacity, align incentives, and embed fast testing early in clinical pathways so that patients benefit when it matters most.

The full research, The Value of Fast Diagnostics in Time-Critical Infections: A Use Case in Bloodstream Infections and Sepsis, is available at: https://www.ohe.org/publications/the-value-of-fast-diagnostics-in-time-critical-infections/

ABOUT BIOMÉRIEUX
Pioneering Diagnostics
A world leader in the field of in vitro diagnostics since 1963, bioMérieux is present in 46 countries and serves more than 160 countries with the support of a large network of distributors. In 2025, revenues reached €4.1 billion, with over 94% of sales outside of France.

bioMérieux provides diagnostic solutions (systems, reagents, software and services) which determine the source of disease and contamination to improve patient health and ensure consumer safety. Its products are mainly used for diagnosing infectious diseases. They are also used for detecting microorganisms in agri-food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic products.
www.biomerieux.com.

bioMérieux is listed on the Euronext Paris stock market.
Symbol: BIM – ISIN Code: FR0013280286
Reuters: BIOX.PA/Bloomberg: BIM.FP 

CONTACTS

MEDIA RELATIONS
bioMérieux
Todd Siesky
Vice President, North America Communications
Email: todd.siesky@biomerieux.com
Contact: +1 919.791.5822

^{__________________________
i} Gray A, Chung E, Hsu R et al. Global, regional, and national sepsis incidence and mortality, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis. The Lancet Global Health, 2025
ⁱⁱ Canadian Sepsis Foundation. https://www.canadiansepsisfoundation.ca/about-sepsis. Accessed March 2026.
ⁱⁱⁱ Bauer, K.A., Perez, K.K., Forrest, G.N. and Goff, D.A., 2014. Review of rapid diagnostic tests used by antimicrobial stewardship programs. Clinical Infectious Diseases: An Official Publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, 59 Suppl 3, pp.S134-145. DOI: 10.1093/cid/ciu547.
^iv Kadri, S.S., Lai, Y.L., Warner, S., Strich, J.R., Babiker, A., Ricotta, E.E., Demirkale, C.Y., Dekker, J.P., Palmore, T.N., Rhee, C., Klompas, M., Hooper, D.C., Powers, J.H., Srinivasan, A., Danner, R.L. and Adjemian, J., 2021a. Inappropriate Empiric Antibiotic Therapy in Bloodstream Infections at U.S. Hospitals based on Discordant In vitro Susceptibilities: A Retrospective Cohort Analysis of Prevalence, Predictors and Mortality Risk. The Lancet. Infectious diseases, 21(2), pp.241–251. DOI: 10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30477-1.
^v Hassan S., Hamlyn T., Fong H., Hampson G. 2026. The Value of Fast Diagnostics in Time-Critical Infections. OHE Contract Research Report, London: Office of Health Economics.

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