Lawrence Siebert, president Chembio Diagnostics of Medford.  (September 2009)

Lawrence Siebert, president Chembio Diagnostics of Medford. (September 2009) Credit: Joseph D. Sullivan

Research projects for rapid-diagnosis tests for HIV, hepatitis C and syphilis have brought a Medford company nearly $1.5 million in federal grants under President Barack Obama's national health-care reform law.

Medical device maker Chembio Diagnostics Inc. said it got $1,467,000 in grants for six of its product lines that qualify under the new law's "Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Projects" category.

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Research projects for rapid-diagnosis tests for HIV, hepatitis C and syphilis have brought a Medford company nearly $1.5 million in federal grants under President Barack Obama's national health-care reform law.

Medical device maker Chembio Diagnostics Inc. said it got $1,467,000 in grants for six of its product lines that qualify under the new law's "Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Projects" category.

"The projects also needed to show a reasonable potential to create or sustain high-quality jobs and to advance United States competitiveness in the fields of life sciences, biological and medical sciences," Chembio said in a news release this week.

The awards are given to projects that meet one or more of the following criteria:
-- Show a reasonable potential to detect or treat chronic or acute diseases and conditions.
-- Reduce the long-term growth of health care costs in the United States.
-- Result in new therapies to treat areas of unmet medical need.
-- Significantly advance the goal of curing cancer within 30 years. 

Above, Chembio chairman and president Lawrence Siebert. (September 2009)

 

A trip to the emergency room in a Long Island hospital now averages nearly 4 hours, data shows. NewsdayTV's Virginia Huie reports. Credit: Newsday Staff

'I'm going to try to avoid it' A trip to the emergency room in a Long Island hospital now averages nearly 4 hours, data shows. NewsdayTV's Virginia Huie reports.