A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

Molecular diagnostics company Vermillion (Fremont, California) reported the renewal of a long-standing collaboration with Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore) related to the development of novel biomarkers that can be applied toward disease detection, classification and monitoring of prevalent cancers, including ovarian, breast and prostate. Vermillion will have access to exclusive commercial rights to the discoveries made through the partnership.

Vermillion will continue to provide financial support, technical assistance and access to its advanced technology platforms, while Johns Hopkins will continue to contribute cancer serum samples and the clinical and scientific expertise of its physicians and scientists.

Eric Fung, MD, PhD, chief scientific officer of Vermillion, said, “For more than seven years we have had a highly productive relationship with Dr. Daniel W. Chan, professor of pathology/urology/oncology/radiology, director of the Clinical Chemistry Division in the Department of Pathology and Director for the Center for Biomarker Discovery, and his esteemed team at Johns Hopkins University. Working in tandem with this distinguished institution on the discovery of clinical assays that will ultimately aid in the development of reliable diagnostic tests gives us an opportunity to address serious unmet needs in oncology.” He said that this collaboration “has led to the development of our ovarian tumor triage test that has the potential to significantly improve patient outcomes

Vermillion has ongoing diagnostic programs in oncology, hematology, cardiology and women’s health with an initial focus in ovarian cancer.

In other dealmaking:

• Schering-Plough (Kenilworth, New Jersey) and OraSure (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) have agreed to collaborate on the development and promotion of a rapid oral hepatitis C virus (HCV) test using OraSure’s OraQuick technology platform outside the U.S. The agreement expands an existing collaboration to develop and promote a rapid oral HCV test in the U.S. physicians’ office markets.

Schering-Plough will reimburse OraSure for certain development costs and provide payments to OraSure based on the achievement of certain regulatory and commercial milestones in international markets. Schering-Plough will also provide promotional support for the product in international markets. OraSure will make all sales of the HCV test, and OraSure will retain the rights to sell the test in all markets throughout the world. During the collaboration period, the test may, at Schering-Plough’s option, be labeled and promoted under both Schering-Plough and OraSure trademarks.

• Enigma Diagnostics (Porton Down, UK), a developer of molecular diagnostics systems, reported that it has signed license agreements with Applera (Norwalk, Connecticut). The license agreements are for a Real-Time Instrument patent and an Application Kit license agreement.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

The agreements provide Enigma with access under patents owned or controlled by Applera for real-time PCR thermal cyclers and real-time PCR methods and compositions in specific fields.

The license agreement covers Enigma’s current and pipeline instrument platforms of automated, real-time thermal cyclers across the commercial market sectors of research and applied markets. It also provides Enigma with an option for a license in clinical diagnostics.

The Application Kit license agreement is for patents covering reverse transcription-based methods, real-time PCR detection process and 5’ Nuclease assays and compositions, for use in fields excluding human diagnostics.

Enigma is developing diagnostic instrument platforms for the detection and identification of infectious organisms, such as bacteria and viruses, in clinical, environmental and biological samples.

• Bederra (Houston) President Graham Williams reported that it has sent an “expression of interest letter” to a privately held, Houston-based, healthcare services company, unnamed, to negotiate the purchase of that company.

Bederra said that company has contracts to provide specialty services to hospitals, clinics and physician practices nationwide and has offices in several states. The targeted acquisition generates $9 million in annual revenues and is profitable, Bederra said.

Both parties hope to have a letter of intent signed within 90 days, Bederra said.

Last month, Bederra reported it had agreed to acquire the assets receivables and liabilities of privately held Lumar Diagnostic Imaging (Houston) a company formed to provide multi-modality diagnostic imaging services such as MRI, CT, ultrasound and pain management.

• Luminos (Ann Arbor, Michigan) reported an exclusive license agreement with the University of Pittsburgh to use its technology to develop and sell detection kits, which contain a new fluorescent sense to detect the rare metals palladium and platinum. The fluorescent molecule was developed in Kazunori Koide’s lab, a chemistry professor at the university. According to the company, the technology allows the user to quantitatively detect palladium or platinum in samples simply and rapidly using the fluorescent signal generated.

Luminos said the technology has applications in multiple product areas. It expects the first product using the technology to be on the market by late summer.

Luminos develops assay kit products for the detection of important biological molecules.