Biomerica Inc has been contracted to develop a new food allergy test for the Kyowa Medex Company, Tokyo, Japan, a subsidiary of Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co., Ltd., a leading Japanese pharmaceutical Company. The terms of the development agreement were not disclosed.

The new test will be semi-quantitative ELISA format test kit and be able to detect specific IgG in human serum to 14 food allergens, and will be made using foods specifically endemic to Japan. The kit will be sold in Japan initially 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 a high-profile issue in Japan. We believe that the Japanese medical society will respond favorably to this new product," stated Dr. Akira Horiguchi, Project Leader of Kyowa Medex.

"We are looking forward to the launch of this new product in Japan this year. This will be a new product format which will also allow us to develop specific allergy panels for other countries in the world," said Mark S. Fisher, International Marketing, Biomerica.