Biomerica Inc. announced a significant advance in the management of irritablebowel syndrome (IBS). The inFoods® IBS diagnostic test has now been validated for use with finger stick (capillary) patient whole blood samples simplifying sample collection and facilitating wider access to the test. With this new finger stick blood collection option, any trained medical professional in the doctor's office can collect the patient's blood sample during their office visit and forward the sample to the Lab for processing.

This workflow enhancement greatly simplifies the process for healthcare providers to order the inFoods IBS test and is much easier for patients. The InFoods IBS test will continue to be available using blood collected from a patient's arm (venipuncture) by a trained phlebotomist. The inFoods® IBS test is the first of its kind to identify specific foods that may trigger or provoke an IBS symptom, providing personalized dietary recommendations to help manage this often-debilitating condition.

The test is offered as a laboratory developed test (LDT) performed in a CAP accredited, CLIA-certified high-complexity laboratory. The inFoods IBS clinical study was performed at several prominent centers including Mayo Clinic, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Inc. - a Harvard Medical School Teaching Hospital, Houston Methodist Hospital, and the University of Michigan. In data presented May 8th at the 2023 Digestive Disease Week (DDW) annual meeting, clinical results for improvement in the Abdominal Pain Intensity (API) responder endpoint of >30%, for IBS patients in the treatment diet arm had a statistically significant improvement over patients in the placebo diet arm (p-value of 0.0246).

The improvement for patients in the treatment arm versus the placebo arm is considered clinically significant and is similar and, in some cases, better than the current drugs in the market.