Binding Site, The

Binding Site is a Specialist Protein company committed to the research, development, manufacture and distribution of innovative immuno-diagnostic assays for the global laboratory market. By utilising its considerable expertise in antibody specificity technology, Binding Site gives clinicians and laboratory staff the tools to significantly improve diagnosis and management of those patients with specific cancers and immune disorders.

 

Founded by a group of academics from Birmingham University Medical School, UK, in the 1960s and established as a commercial company in 1982 the organisation remains based in Birmingham where their products are manufactured. Direct sales in UK, USA, Canada, Germany, Austria, France, Spain, Italy, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg are supported by Binding Site offices and in the rest of the world by a distributor network in over 60 other countries. Worldwide the company employs almost 500 people with around 380 based in Birmingham. The Binding Site Group Limited announced the sale of its Autoimmune Diagnostics business to the Werfen Group SA in July 2009 and the company is now focusing on its rapidly growing specialist protein business. Turnover for the year to September 2009 was approximately £35 million, an underlying increase of 21% on the previous year.

 

Binding Site manufactures a wide range of high quality innovative products:

 

Freelite™, a novel and highly significant tumour marker increasingly used for the diagnosis, prognosis and monitoring of Multiple Myeloma, a cancer of cells in the bone marrow. Multiple Myeloma is the second most common blood cancer after non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. There are currently approximately 2.5 million pairs of Freelite serum free light chain tests performed per annum with the number of laboratory analyses increasing at a rate of approx. 50% p.a.

 

Primary Immunodeficiency Diseases (PID). Binding Site is a market leader in the development of products for the investigation of PID (disorders in which part of the body's immune system is missing or not functioning correctly). The current range of specialised products includes assays to measure specific antibody response to vaccination and assays to quantify immunoglobulins and IgG and IgA subclasses in human serum.

 

SPAPLUS™  is a fully supported, dedicated and reliable serum and plasma protein analyser which complements both the specialist Freelite and IgG subclass assays that Binding Site are well-known for, plus an expanding range of exciting new assays. The low maintenance SPAPLUS is compact, easy to use and provides a level of functionality usually only seen in larger systems.