Abaxis, Inc. Receives Health Canada Class III Approval For Piccolo Xpress®

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UNION CITY, Calif., April 8, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Abaxis, Inc. (NasdaqGS: ABAX), a medical products company manufacturing point-of-care blood analysis systems, today announced Health Canada approved the Piccolo Xpress® and Piccolo Reagent Discs as a Class III medical device for use throughout Canada. With this reclassification, Canadian healthcare providers and patients can now enjoy the benefits of lab-accurate blood chemistry diagnostics at the point-of-care.

With the Piccolo delivering lab-accurate blood chemistry results on-site in minutes, Canadian physicians can make confident treatment decisions while the patient is in their office, thereby increasing the speed and quality of care. Traditionally, Canadian patients needing general chemistry results had to visit their physician, who ordered the laboratory work. Patients would then go to their local laboratory for the tests and wait up to a week for the results to be reviewed by the physician. Now through the Piccolo, patients can receive immediate diagnostic results and a more complete plan of care during their initial visit.

"This is indeed great news for the doctors and patients in Canada," said Clint Severson, chairman and chief executive officer of Abaxis, Inc. "Waiting up to a week for important diagnostic results can exacerbate patient conditions and increase the cost of care. With this approval, now every private physician in Canada can have access to fast and accurate blood chemistry diagnostics on-site, in minutes. By approving the Piccolo for Class III use, Health Canada has taken an extraordinary step to improve the technology, speed, efficacy and efficiency of their government-run healthcare system."

About Abaxis
Abaxis develops, manufactures and markets portable blood analysis systems for use in any veterinary or human patient-care setting to provide clinicians with rapid blood constituent measurements. The system consists of a compact, 5.1 kilogram (11.2 pounds), portable analyzer and a series of single-use plastic discs, called reagent discs that contain all the chemicals required to perform a panel of up to 14 tests on veterinary patients and 31 tests on human patients. The system can be operated with minimal training and performs multiple routine tests on whole blood, serum or plasma samples. The system provides test results in less than 12 minutes with the precision and accuracy equivalent to a clinical laboratory analyzer. For more information please visit http://www.piccoloxpress.com

This press release includes statements that constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the "Reform Act"). Abaxis claims the protection of the safe-harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Reform Act. These forward-looking statements are often characterized by the terms "may," "believes," "projects," "expects," "anticipates," or words of similar import, and do not reflect historical facts. Specific forward-looking statements contained in this press release or in our conference call may be affected by risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, those related to the market acceptance of the company's products and the continuing development of its products, required United States Food and Drug Administration clearance and other government approvals, risks associated with manufacturing and distributing its products on a commercial scale free of defects, risks related to the introduction of new instruments manufactured by third parties, risks associated with entering the human diagnostic market on a larger scale, risks associated with liquidity concerns related to our auction rate securities, risks related to the protection of the company's intellectual property or claims of infringement of intellectual property asserted by third parties, predictions related to condition of the United States economy, risks involved in carrying of inventory and other risks detailed from time to time in Abaxis' periodic reports filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date the statements were made. Abaxis does not undertake and specifically disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

Contact:

Clint Severson

Lytham Partners, LLC


Chief Executive Officer

Joe Dorame, Robert Blum and Joe Diaz


Abaxis, Inc.

602-889-9700


510-675-6500


SOURCE Abaxis



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