Another Price Increase?

[BBinterest]

Has anyone heard about an impending price increase for Ortho reagents, effective 4/1/08? I am on GPO pricing, however I am interested in seeing how different my pricing is versus non-GPO. Would anyone be willing to share non-GPO pricing?

[bsholar]

Just received my price list last Friday. To quote my rep: Modest increase in gel reagents. Significant increase for everything else." Sticker shock doesn't begin to describe my reaction! I am also interested in how our group pricing compares to others.

[jmatt]

I guess I'm in the wrong business. I think I'll shut the donor center down and start a new Blood Bank reagent company. I got our new prices last week when I was introduced to my new sales rep. 100% increase on anti-sera? 10% on red cells? I don't know if its just me, but it seems Ortho is trying to force the issue of performing ABO/Rh's on gel cards.

[Mary]

Last year Immucor antisera was much cheaper.

[Mary]

There is a new company starting up:Alba Bioscience, but they don't carry everything.

[GilTphoto]

Blood Bank reagent costs have sky rocketed to rediculous levels. We use Immucor. Last year anti-K was $10, now $100. Anti-S is $700. Even Anti-A , B and D have jumped to about $25-35/bottle. I'm keeping ALL expired anti-sera frozen and using it forever.

The new company Alba isn't cheap either. Even the temp charts are $56/52 sheets. It's just a piece of paper!! How can they justify more than $1 a sheet?

The only thing that isn't increasing, is our salary!

Nurses in our hospital (with a 2 year degree) get double what med techs do. Their salary is averaging about $100,000/year in Miami.

[David Saikin]

The ortho prices are going up 100% for all non-gel reagents. This will be effective in March sometime . . . I got this word last week. Both companies appear to be tyring to force the issue on both automation and their "new" technologies. Their justification, as I understand it, is that they are losing money with the classic blood bank reagent business. Both tried to divest themselves of such but the FDA would not allow it. About 4 years ago classic prices started to increase 100-300%/year in the corporate attempt to remain profitable. My superiors were rather perturbed at this announcement. We have no alternative but to increase our prices for antibody id, ag types and other reference work. Ain't America Great!?!?!

[bmarotto]

These price increases always come in the middle of our fiscal year. I increased my reagent budget 40% for this year expecting a price increase about midway through the year. Adminstration thought I was padding the budget. Little did they know we are going to end the year significantly over budget.

[S.Hunt]

I was told there would be a 100% increase, however, after checking prices it is 110%. It appears the prices are increasing just because they can, as with oil. As with others our rep says this is to get everyone to use the Gel ABO cards. Why is it they want to push us to a slower technology (15 minutes)when our ER and OR want faster technologies and there is anationwide shortage of O Negatives thus fewer to have for emergency issue until a blood type is found?

And we thought those with the power over our livelyhoods and budgets were in Washington. D.C.

[galvania]

As with others our rep says this is to get everyone to use the Gel ABO cards. Why is it they want to push us to a slower technology (15 minutes)when our ER and OR want faster technologies and there is anationwide shortage of O Negatives thus fewer to have for emergency issue until a blood type is found?

I am not defending Ortho (Heaven forbid! - we are competitors as I work for DiaMed in Europe) nor would I ever defend the method of pushing up the prices on one set of reagents to force people to use others. BUT I would defend the gel method for ABO. I started working in blood banking 34 years ago and have done routine blood groups on microscope slides, on large sheets of glass marked off with marker pens, on glass or ceramic tiles with little wells in them, in tubes, in microplates, and now, for the last 17 years in gel - and I wouldn't go back to tubes for anything in the world for routine blood typing. Yes - you are right - a single blood group takes longer in gel than in a tube. But how often do you do a single blood group? Most of the time you are putting up batches. And most of the time, they don't need to be read straight away. In the case of a real emergency (and in my experience there aren't really that many of those), then a slide is even quicker than a tube! Here in Europe, where the majority of labs use gel technique (mainly DiaMed, some Ortho, some Diagast), what they usually do in a REAL emergency is do a quick group by slide or tube, then when they have sent off the ONeg or group specific blood (depending on their individual SOPs) they would complete the full group and antibody screen in the card. The card gives a major element of added security in that you have a permanent record of the actual result, with the images of each individual well. If you are using an automat, the automat will store this for you, but even if you are working manually, it's always possible to photocopy the card and stick the picture on to the report, or at least to have a second person check the results easily - even the next day, if needs be. Not only that, but because the gel technique is totally standardised, it means that someone using a grouping card in Senegal is working in exactly the same way as someone in Switzerland. Thi makes it a lot easier to sort out any possible problems that individual customers might have from time to time. And before I am accused of being biased because I work for DiaMed, I am going to defend myself - I chose to come and work for DiaMed BECAUSE I love the gel technique, and not the other way round. Anyway, DiaMed doesn't sell in the States (yet!!!!) so I have nothing to gain - and I'm certainly not getting any backhanders form Ortho!!!

So this is a plea - don't let Ortho's appalling marketing techniques put you off a technique that has real advantages

[Mabel Adams]

Re: freezing your old antisera.

I believe it was the late John Case, previous guru of Gamma, that once said on the AABB forums that it was probably better to just refrigerate old antisera rather than freeze it. I have been doing that for years now with results about as good as when I froze it. Obviously this expired stuff isn't for routine use.

[Mabel Adams]

What can we do to make our special antisera go further? I believe there are methods for using gel cards and small volumes of antisera. Anyone have a method they would care to share?

I really like the monoclonal K and Jka antisera that only take 5 min at RT, but could probably stand to spin them in gel for 10 min. if it is enough cheaper.

Is Ortho marketing special typing cards with reagent already in the cards? I never see an Ortho rep so don't get updates on their products.

[quint]

I bet the economy has something to do with the increases.

[Eagle Eye]

What can we do to make our special antisera go further? I believe there are methods for using gel cards and small volumes of antisera. Anyone have a method they would care to share?

I really like the monoclonal K and Jka antisera that only take 5 min at RT, but could probably stand to spin them in gel for 10 min. if it is enough cheaper.

Is Ortho marketing special typing cards with reagent already in the cards? I never see an Ortho rep so don't get updates on their products.

Ortho has Rh cards available. They were in process of validating Kell but do not know if available for coustomers or not.

[David Saikin]

Mabel

I validated all my rares using gel cards, either buffered or IgG. I use 50uL of 0.8% cells and 25uL of the antibody. These are incubated as per the pkg insert (room temp, 37C) and spun for 10 minutes in the MTS ctfg. The only rare that didn't validate was my 4 yr outdated anti-Lea. This includes the monoclonal anti-K1. Did you say monoclonal Jka? If yes, who do you get it from? By-the-by, the Immucor complement check cells react 3-4+ in gel (after 5 min incubation). An even more efficient way to use antisera is with Chown tubes. You can do about 50 types with 1 drop of antisera. We used to use them to screen donors for "e". Of course we had to verify using the manufacturer's directions, but a 3 mL bottle went a long way.

[Eagle Eye]

Ortho anti-Jka & anti-Jkb is RT.

[Mabel Adams]

Pardon my ignorance, but what is a chown tube?

[SMW]

It's a micro capillary tube. Bruce Chown is the individual that developed/reported the method of using these tubes for serologic testing (in 1944).

[GilTphoto]

But how often do you do a single blood group? Most of the time you are putting up batches. And most of the time, they don't need to be read straight away.

In 200-300 bed hospitals, most of the work is one at a time, and there are plenty of patient's coming in with 5-6 Hgb's who they want to transfuse as soon as possible.

I'm tired of these companies trying to force automation on us that we don't need. There is no REAL justification for the increase in price, only the company's greed!

I like the fact that my Blood Bank is manual tube testing. If I wanted to be a button pusher, I could work in Hematology or Chemistry. All I need is a centrifuge, a heat block, and a microscope.

I worked in a lab with a robotic line that sent specimens directly into the hematology and chemistry instruments. The computer evaluated and released the results, then the specimens went off to storage, all by themselves. At least that was the theory! The reality was that the robotic line broke every 5 minutes and you spent 90% of your time trying to fix it. When you couldn't fix it, you had thousands of specimens to program manually, with a promised turn around time of 1 hour. It was the worst job I ever had in my 30 years of doing lab. I hated it so bad, after one year of abuse, I quit without having another job to go to.

Gil

[galvania]

I'm tired of these companies trying to force automation on us that we don't need.

If I wanted to be a button pusher, I could work in Hematology or Chemistry. All I need is a centrifuge, a heat block, and a microscope.

Gil

I know what you mean about button-pushing. I grew up in the days when every FBC had a slide stained and looked at, and the cell counters only gave you red cells, white cells, HCT and MCV; and blood sugars were done by adding a colour reagent and boiling over a Bunsen Burner, then comparing the colour change to a set of pictures on the wall. Not very precise but much more satisfying! But to come back to the real world, you can do the gel manually too, you know. All you need is a pipette, an incubator (for the antibody screens, not the ABO) and a centrifuge.............Then if you want the added advantage of having a permanent record of the actual results you can have a small reader (..or maybe not with the Ortho cards..?) or photocopy the cards for posterity....You don't HAVE to have an automat....

[bbbirder]

Like David, we have validated some of our antisera for use in gel (manual gel), for unit screening. So far, only Fya & b and JKa & b. The techs really like it (the more permanent record, and it makes it easier to label the units) and it does make the antisera go farther. I want to do the S antisera, but none of our patients with anti-S have been back for a while. We'll wait to do validation when we actually have a need to screen units for this antigen.

Linda F

[Mabel Adams]

I have been trying to order anti-C monoclonal from Immucor and find that it is backordered indefinitely. I am guessing that it is backordered till the price increase is in effect, but maybe not. Does anyone know what is going on? Gammaclone control and anti-IgG green are also backordered. I can get by without these for awhile but I am about out of anti-C

Anyone know of a source of monoclonal anti-C that uses the same testing steps as Gammaclone (IS & 15 min RT)?

[David Saikin]

Mabel - Ortho has a monoclonal anti-C which runs basically the same (rt incubations I believe).

[BBK710]

I was just told the Immucor has also back ordered Anti D. And they only sent me 25% of the traditional reagents that I ordered. I was told that they are on "allocation" and what they sent was based on historical ordering. I usually order for three months, this time I ordered for 6 to avoid the price increase. They sent me enough for one month. At which time I can order more at the 50% price increase. So much for customer service. When it comes time to look at automation will I be looking at Immucor???

[conwaysbb]

Has anybody confirm whether this is true?