A Medical Device Daily
Innovative Biosensors (Rockville, Maryland) and ProGenTech (Emeryville, California) reported an agreement to jointly develop a rapid, integrated diagnostic system.
The system will incorporate Innovative Biosensor's Cellular Analysis and Notification of Antigen Risks and Yields (CANARY) technology, a cell-based approach for quickly detecting various pathogens, into a modified version of ProGenTech's Entura Lite platform with integrated optical detection capabilities.
Innovative Biosensors will commercialize the developed product. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Joe Hernandez, president/CEO of Innovative Biosensors, said, "We believe that having more rapid, highly sensitive assays and fully integrated systems is of immense value to the clinical diagnostic market. The combinations of our two technologies will achieve this panacea. We look forward to working with ProGenTech in revolutionizing this very important market."
Trevor Hawkins, chairman/CEO of ProGenTech, said, "This is a clear validation of the ProGenTech technology and will be yet another avenue for us to create value from our product portfolio and know how. In combination with the groundbreaking Innovative Biosensors technology, this new product will enable radical improvements in diagnosis and treatment."
Innovative Biosensors' cell-based CANARY technology consists of engineered biosensors expressing membrane bound, pathogen specific antibodies and a calcium sensitive bioluminescent molecule.
Cross-linking of the antibodies by even minute amounts of the specific pathogen leads to elevation of intracellular calcium and light emission. The amplified light output can then be detected using a luminometer.
In other agreements/contracts news:
• Precyse Solutions (Wayne, Pennsylvania) has signed a five-year oncology data management contract with SwedishAmerican Hospital (Rockford, Illinois). The agreement between Precyse and SwedishAmerican includes the complete outsourcing of the abstracting and management of the hospital's Cancer Registry.
Precyse was awarded the contract based on its ability to provide certified tumor registrars and management to keep SwedishAmerican's Cancer Registry up to date and the Oncology Department compliant with the Commission on Cancer and the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries requirements.
• Aethlon Medical (San Diego) reported that its chairman/CEO, James A. Joyce, issued a letter to shareholders to clarify the status of a grant submission to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Seattle) in which the company proposes to demonstrate that its Hemopurifier, acting as an artificial adjunct to the immune system, can reduce viral load and improve immune function in HIV infected patients, including those fully resistant to drug therapy. A response is expected in March.
• Xenomics (Monmouth Junction, New Jersey) provided an update on its commercial activities regarding NPM1 testing for acute myeloid leukemia (AML). In 2008, the company granted nonexclusive license rights to Laboratory Corporation of America (Burlington, North Carolina) and to InVivoScribe Technologies (San Diego) to offer mutation analysis of NPM1 as a laboratory service for the diagnosis, stratification and monitoring of patients with AML.
The agreements include up-front payments, royalties, and milestone payments to Xenomics and do not encompass tests that may be developed by the company based on its Transrenal nucleic acid technology.
• Toshiba America Information Systems' (Irvine, California) Telecommunication Systems Division and IgeaCare Systems USA (Scottsdale, Arizona) reported an agreement for the distribution of an integrated telephony-based solution aimed at the healthcare industry.
IgeaCare's igeacom emergency call (e-call) and nurse call solution is now integrated with Toshiba's Strata CIX family of IP business telephone systems. The integrated solution is sold through Toshiba's Authorized Dealer Network nationwide as well as by IgeaCare's sales team.