Azbil BioVigilant, inventors of Instantaneous Microbial Detection, announced the introduction of its IMD-W rapid microbial detection system for real-time water monitoring of pharmaceutical water sources.

“The IMD-W system is one of the first of its kind to respond to a call from the pharmaceutical industry for on-line water bioburden analysis (OWBA),” said Jeffrey Weber, PAT project manager at Pfizer and one of the founding members of the OWBA workgroup. He added, “BioVigilant’s IMD-W system is a new complementary tool at our disposal, for trending the state of control of water systems in real time through continuous bioburden monitoring.”

The system targets applications where the instrument can be used immediately to manage and mitigate risks, increase process understanding, save energy through better use of heat sanitization cycles, and drive labor efficiencies.

Using laser-induced fluorescence, the IMD-W system simultaneously measures particle size and determines whether a particle is biologic or inert. This optical design does not require staining or reagents, and incorporates three light scatter signals with advanced software algorithms to detect biologic particles and discriminate non-biologic “interferent” materials which could otherwise be counted as biologics by other systems. The system may be used on-line for continuous monitoring, or at-line, for point-of-use samples and in laboratory settings. Other features include a touch panel for easy-to-use operation, a set of standard reports for data export and analysis, and a flexible communications interface for networking and integration with common industrial control systems.

The IMD-W system augments BioVigilant’s current product offerings focused on rapid microbial monitoring for air in pharmaceutical manufacturing areas and other controlled environments.

With headquarters in Tucson, Arizona, BioVigilant invented instantaneous microbial detection technology to address environmental monitoring needs in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, healthcare, and environmental applications.