A Medical Device Daily

Agendia (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) and Agilent Technologies (Santa Clara, California) have agreed to collaborate to develop new in vitro diagnostic tests. The companies also said that Agendia products would continue to be supplied on Agilent microarrays through the end of 2011. Agilent has been manufacturing the components for the Agendia assay since its inception in 2003. The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Last year FDA cleared Agendia's MammaPrint, a molecular diagnostic tool developed to predict whether existing cancer will spread to other parts of a body. It was not the first such predictor to hit the U.S. market, but the agency said it was the first cleared molecular test that profiles genetic activity (Medical Device Daily, Feb. 7, 2007).

The tests, which are manufactured on Agilent microarrays, are performed at Agendia's laboratory in the Netherlands. Agendia also offers DiscoverPrint, a gene expression-based service intended to improve the efficacy of clinical trials, and CupPrint, a diagnostic test designed to identify the origin of a metastasis in a cancer type called "Cancer of Unknown Primary." These are also made using Agilent microarrays.

The companies plan to share information about their research into genetic biomarkers and jointly assess the commercial potential of each opportunity.

Agilent provides research microarrays used to analyze gene expression, microRNA, comparative genomic hybridization and ChIP-on-chip. Agendia develops gene expression analysis-based diagnostics.