Health Economic Analysis Shows Early Use of Fast Diagnostics in Sepsis Care Could Prevent 5,200 Deaths in the UK and Save the NHS £300 Million Annually

 Health Economic Analysis Shows Early Use of Fast Diagnostics in Sepsis Care Could Prevent 5,200 Deaths in the UK and Save the NHS £300 Million Annually

• Every year, an estimated 104,000 adults in the UK are hospitalised with bloodstream infections at high risk of progressing to sepsis – a quickly deteriorating condition that claims more lives than lung cancer and is the second biggest killer after cardiovascular disease.1,2
• New independent modelling shows that deploying fast identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing early in the patient pathway could prevent around 10,000 sepsis cases and 5,200 deaths in the UK every year, generate 4,400 additional years of healthy life, and save the NHS approximately £300 million annually.1

Basingstoke (UK), April 20, 2026 – bioMérieux, a world leader in in vitro diagnostics, announces the publication of a multi-country health economic analysis assessing the impact of deploying fast identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing (ID/AST) early in the care pathway for patients with bloodstream infections at high-risk of sepsis.

Conducted by the Office of Health Economics (OHE), one of the world’s leading independent health economics research organisations, in all G7 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States), this health economic analysis is the first to provide evidence that early use of fast diagnostics can reduce preventable deterioration into sepsis, improve patient outcomes, and generate substantial cost savings for healthcare systems consistently across all studied countries.

“Every year in the UK, up to 48,000 people die from sepsis,” explains Dr Ron Daniels, Founder and Chief Medical Officer of the UK Sepsis Trust. “Early intervention is the most impactful way of preventing avoidable deaths, yet we still rely on diagnostics which take days to confirm the causative organism or ‘bug’. Clinicians are left with little choice but to prescribe broad-spectrum antibiotics, risking treatment incompatibility and contributing to antimicrobial resistance. This new analysis is highly encouraging, as it shows that early use of fast diagnostics could help the NHS act earlier to prevent sepsis and save thousands of lives.”

Unmet Needs in Sepsis Management

Sepsis, a life-threatening reaction to an infection, is responsible for an estimated 21 million deaths globally each year.3 The initial hours of sepsis management are critical, and targeted antibiotic treatment is a key determinant of survival. Yet conventional diagnostic methods take two to three days to deliver results, forcing high-stakes treatment decisions without complete information.4 

As a result, nearly 1 in 5 bloodstream infection patients receive an inappropriate initial treatment, increasing the risk of deterioration and driving higher costs for the hospital and health system.5

Inappropriate antibiotic use is fuelling antimicrobial resistance (AMR), with drug-resistant infections in the UK rising by over 13% since 2019.6 This underscores a growing public health threat, identified as a core government priority in the UK 5-year National Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance (2024-2029), which calls for urgent action to optimise antimicrobial use and strengthen prevention, including better diagnostics.7 Delivering on this ambition will also be critical to achieving NHS England’s 10 Year Health Plan, where earlier diagnosis, prevention and expanded community care depend on rapid, reliable infection diagnostics to guide appropriate treatment at the right point in the patient pathway.8

The model-based health economic analysis evaluates what would happen if fast ID/AST were systematically used early in the care pathway before clinical deterioration occurs. Built using real‑world hospital data from France, the health economic evaluation incorporates epidemiology, care pathways, costs, progression to sepsis, mortality, and long‑term consequences over a 13‑month time frame. It was then validated and adapted for each G7 country using local data inputs including incidence, diagnostic testing patterns, and country‑specific healthcare costs, together with clinical expert review to ensure alignment with national practices and standards of care. Across Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, the findings are consistent.

Faster Identification Significantly Improves Patient Outcomes

Previous studies have demonstrated that fast ID/AST technologies can return actionable diagnostic results within less than 30 hours, substantially shortening time‑to‑results compared to the standard of care in each country.1 The OHE analysis builds on this established evidence by quantifying the clinical impact of deploying these faster diagnostics early in the care pathway. Across all seven countries, the results from the model-based health economic evaluation show that earlier access to diagnostic information could prevent thousands of patients with bloodstream infection from progressing to sepsis or septic shock annually, with the number of reported sepsis cases potentially falling by an average of more than 20%. This could lead to fewer sepsis-related deaths and a significant reduction in long-term post-sepsis complications, improving patients’ quality of life.1

“This model demonstrates that early diagnostics reduce the likelihood that high-risk patients progress to sepsis and subsequently lower the risk of lasting health complications after discharge. In the UK, the AMR National Action Plan has identified fast and accurate diagnosis as central to improving outcomes, but diagnostic reimbursement structures have not kept pace with this ambition,” explains Paul Skingley, Vice President of Clinical Operations, UK and Ireland bioMérieux. “At bioMérieux, we are committed to ensuring that every patient receives the right diagnostic at the right time. We hope these findings support the reforms needed to align funding, reimbursement, and incentives so that high-impact infectious disease diagnostics are valued and adopted based on their system-wide clinical and economic benefits, not just upfront costs.” 

A System-Wide Return on Investment

Across all G7 countries, the evaluation shows that deploying fast ID/AST early in the care pathway is consistently cost-saving, regardless of how each health system is structured or financed.1

Importantly, 53% to 83% of all savings occur during the initial hospitalisation, when the clinical and economic consequences of deterioration are most concentrated, because early diagnostic information prevents the likelihood that patients progress into one of the most resource-intensive stages of sepsis care.1 In the UK, savings are estimated to be £3,000 per patient, driven primarily by fewer ICU admissions, shorter hospital stays, and reduced management of severe complications.1

At the population level, annual national savings for the UK are estimated to be £300 million. These savings reflect both avoided acute phase costs and reduced long-term complications.1

The Case for Policy Change

Today, diagnostics represent only a small fraction of healthcare spending, yet they remain constrained by value frameworks that fail to capture their broader health system and population-level impact, bundled reimbursement models that treat them as costs rather than value-generating tools, and misaligned incentives where laboratories bear the expense while savings are realised by other parts of the health system.1

While AMR and sepsis are firmly on the UK policy agenda, as shown by sepsis being one of the first conditions for which a NHS England Modern Service Framework will be developed, these modelled findings provide the evidence-based rationale for rethinking how diagnostics are valued and funded. They make a compelling case for a prospective real-world study to confirm their impact in clinical practice, and in the meantime, they chart a clear way forward: updating reimbursement structures, strengthening diagnostic capacity, aligning incentives, and embedding fast testing early in clinical pathways so that patients benefit when it matters most.

The full report, The Value of Fast Diagnostics in Time-Critical Infections: A Use Case in Bloodstream Infections and Sepsis, is available at: https://www.ohe.org/publications/the-value-of-fast-diagnostics-in-time-critical-infections/.

This press release has been prepared for global audiences across G7 countries and adapted for a UK audience.

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A world leader in the field of in vitro diagnostics since 1963, bioMérieux is present in 46 countries and serves more than 160 countries with the support of a large network of distributors. In 2025, revenues reached €4.1 billion, with over 94% of sales outside of France.

bioMérieux provides diagnostic solutions (systems, reagents, software and services) which determine the source of disease and contamination to improve patient health and ensure consumer safety. Its products are mainly used for diagnosing infectious diseases. They are also used for detecting microorganisms in agri-food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic products.
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References:

1. Hassan S, Hamlyn T, Fong H., Hampson G. The Value of Fast Diagnostics in Time-Critical Infections. 2026. OHE Contract Research Report, London: Office of Health Economics

2. https://www.hee.nhs.uk/our-work/sepsis-awareness

3. Gray A, Chung E, Hsu R, et al. Global, regional, and national sepsis incidence and mortality, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis. Lancet Glob Health 2025 ;13 :e2013-26.

4. Bauer KA, Perez KK, Forrest GN, et al. Review of rapid diagnostic tests used by antimicrobial stewardship programs. Clin Infect Dis. 2014;59 Suppl 3:S134145.

5. Kadri SS, Lai YL, Warner S, et al. Inappropriate empirical antibiotic therapy for bloodstream infections based on discordant in-vitro susceptibilities: a retrospective cohort analysis of prevalence, predictors, and mortality risk in US hospitals. Lancet Infect Dis. 2021;21(2):241–251.

6. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6936ac34b612700b2cb73607/ESPAUR-report-2024-to-2025.pdf

7. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/664394d9993111924d9d3465/confronting-antimicrobial-resistance-2024-to-2029.pdf

8. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6888a0b1a11f859994409147/fit-for-the-future-10-year-health-plan-for-england.pdf

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