Blackhawk BioSystems

Blackhawk BioSystems was a private clinical diagnostics company that manufactured quality control products for laboratories performing infectious disease testing. Its core offering included the VIROTROL product line of independent quality assurance reagents used alongside commercial diagnostic assays for hepatitis, HIV, sexually transmitted diseases, congenital disease testing, Epstein-Barr virus, Helicobacter pylori, and Lyme disease. The company operated in the clinical laboratory quality-control segment rather than as a therapeutic drug developer, so it did not have a conventional biotech drug pipeline. Founded in 1989 and based in San Ramon, California, Blackhawk BioSystems was acquired by Bio-Rad Laboratories in October 2006. Following the acquisition, its infectious disease controls were integrated into Bio-Rad's broader clinical diagnostics quality-control portfolio.