Australian medical technology company LBT Innovations (ASX: LBT) has signed a $4.1 million deal to supply its APAS (automated plate assessment system) Independence kits plus support and maintenance services to global biopharmaceutical company and development partner AstraZeneca.

The seven-year contract will see the first five instruments supplied and installed across a number of AstraZeneca’s large manufacturing operations within the next six months, with the potential for additional orders to follow.

AstraZeneca is expected to retain and continue to lease a sixth APAS kit that was previously installed for the company’s validation.

‘Known performance’

Managing director Brent Barnes said the AstraZeneca deal demonstrates the value that APAS technology can provide to the industry.

“This milestone decision was made based on the known performance of the technology within AstraZeneca’s manufacturing processes,” he said.

“It provides evidence and confidence that APAS Independence is a fully-validated technology which meets the stringent requirements for environmental monitoring during drug manufacturing globally.”

Mr Barnes said evaluations with additional multinational pharmaceutical customers are expected to commence in the current quarter.

Fully-automated system

APAS Independence is a fully-automated system with the ability to process over 200 culture plates per hour—reportedly at least three times faster than manual plate-reading capabilities.

The instrument is able to autonomously differentiate culture plates showing signs of bacterial growth without the need for human or further intervention, automatically assessing and sorting plates into stacks of negatives, positives and those to be reviewed.

APAS Independence has demonstrated greater accuracy than microbiologists in independent clinical trials.

Pharma strategy

LBT Innovations’ strategy of targeting large multinational pharmaceutical companies with the potential to acquire multiple instruments across their manufacturing networks has helped the company build a strong pipeline of opportunities within the segment.

In early 2023, LBT received more than $1m in funding from AstraZeneca to develop a new APAS analysis module for use in identifying microbial growth on settle plates used in sterility monitoring during drug manufacturing.

LBT launched APAS Independence into the pharmaceutical market in March after completing formal validation testing – the final stage in the commercialisation process – and demonstrating the performance of the system.