| CONTACT: Nate Banner, Neogen Corporation, 517/372-9200 |
LANSING, Mich., Feb. 1, 2018 — Neogen Corporation (NASDAQ: NEOG) today announced that it has released BetaStar® Advanced — the easiest method to test for antibiotics in milk. BetaStar Advanced has been reviewed by the FDA, approved for use by the National Conference on Interstate Milk Shipments (NCIMS), and validated by the AOAC Research Institute.
Neogen’s new BetaStar® Advanced tests for beta-lactam and tetracycline antibiotics, combined with the new Raptor® Integrated Analysis Platform, form the next generation in antibiotic testing. With the Raptor platform you can just add milk, and walk away. The platform automatically incubates and analyzes up to three milk samples independently and simultaneously — providing the industry a scalable solution for testing.
“Our innovative Raptor platform is the result of almost three years of research and development effort in close collaboration with Neogen’s thousands of dairy customers in the U.S. and around the world,” said John Adent, Neogen’s president and CEO. “Neogen has made investments in instrumentation and software development to meet the growing needs of our customers. We are pleased to bring this next generation platform to the marketplace, which is a product of our continued investment in innovation.”
With the U.S. dairy industry in mind, Neogen developed the only rapid method that tests at the 300 parts per billion tolerance level for tetracyclines. The new BetaStar Advanced for Tetracyclines also does not require a dilution for confirmation testing. Neogen’s BetaStar Advanced for Beta-lactams detects the six antibiotics in the beta-lactam class required by regulators.
“With Raptor, you have the flexibility to add up to three different tests that can be analyzed simultaneously for the same milk sample, and you can run three different samples at the same time — for a total of up to nine tests at once,” said Jeff Demey, Neogen’s sales director for the dairy market. “For example, you can test the same sample for beta-lactams and tetracyclines at the same time, or three different samples for beta-lactams. Raptor greatly simplifies the testing process, and provides the best option for testing for antibiotics.”
The results in the AOAC validation reports (Performance Tested MethodSM 011802 and 011803) provided proof that the BetaStar Advanced tests produce consistent and reliable data for evaluating milk samples for the target antibiotics at the FDA tolerance levels.
Neogen Corporation develops and markets products dedicated to food and animal safety. The company’s Food Safety Division markets dehydrated culture media and diagnostic test kits to detect foodborne bacteria, natural toxins, food allergens, drug residues, plant diseases and sanitation concerns. Neogen’s Animal Safety Division is a leader in the development of animal genomics along with the manufacturing and distribution of a variety of animal healthcare products, including diagnostics, pharmaceuticals, veterinary instruments, wound care and disinfectants.