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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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“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.

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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

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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

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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.

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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.