A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

Illumina (San Diego) and ReaMetrix (San Carlos, California) reported formation of a diagnostic collaboration under which the companies will co-develop molecular diagnostic panels for a range of diseases.

ReaMetrix will gain non-exclusive rights to market the resulting panels to the country of India and its more than 1 billion inhabitants. Illumina will retain rights to market the tests outside of India. Illumina will supply VeraCode technology and other reagents for the tests.

ReaMetrix will develop, validate and market diagnostic panels based on Illumina's upcoming BeadXpress platform, scheduled for market introduction before the end of the calendar year. ReaMetrix will drive market development activities from its operation in Bangalore, India.

According to Bala Manian, PhD, ReaMetrix CEO, "India's rapidly emerging healthcare system presents a tremendous opportunity to leapfrog current diagnostics and chart a new path with innovative molecular and pharmacogenomic testing. Teaming up with Illumina and its Bead-Xpress diagnostic platform, we see a significant opportunity to drive the evolution toward the efficiencies inherent in targeted, personalized medicine."

Illumina develops tools for large-scale analysis of genetic variation and function. Its BeadArray technology enables researchers in the life sciences and pharma industries to perform tests to extract information from advances in genomics and proteomics.

Mediscience-Tech (Cherry Hill, New Jersey) and Infotonics Research (Rochester, New York) reported an agreement defining Infotonics' responsibilities in the development of the Mediscience Optical Biopsy Pill through the formation of a new subsidiary of Mediscience.

Infotonics' responsibilities include leadership in developing a prototype product ready for FDA trials; development of specifications for the Optical Biopsy Ingestible Photonic pill, based on market requirements; and working with Mediscience/Newco to apply for competitive grant funding to supplement prior grants, venture capital investment and accelerate the commercialization project.

All Infotonics IP and related licenses that result from R&D funded by MTC will be owned by MTC with a non-exclusive, worldwide royalty-tree license back to Infoton-ics for fields or use other than medical.

Mediscience CEO Peter Katevatis, said, "This project will enhance Mediscience proprietary non-invasive imaging technology for molecular detection of cancer and physiological change and the company's desire to use the net proceeds of the proposed $5 million to $10 million firm offering to fund commercialization of its platform IP Optical Biopsy Pill technology to its initial FDA application as it also begins to initiate its FDA approved CD-R pilot clinical trials for a cervical diagnostic application adjunct to Pap."

He added, "The relationship with equity partner Infotonics is a synergistic and strategic fit leveraging Infotonics' nano-technology capabilities and resources to provide Mediscience with an exceptional state-of-the-art advantage over competitors' imaging approach."

Infotonics, a consortium whose founding participants include Corning, Eastman Kodak and Xerox, is a not-for-profit corporation that operates New York State's Center of Excellence in Photonics and Microsystems.

Mediscience develops devices that detect cancer and physiological change using frequencies of light that are emitted, scattered and absorbed to distinguish malignant, precancerous, or benign tissues from normal tissues.

Prodesse (Waukesha, Wisconsin), which focuses on Multiplex PCR, and Invitrogen (Carlsbad, California), a provider of technologies for disease research and drug discovery, reported signing of a license agreement for the first diagnostic assays with Invitrogen's LUX (Light Upon eXtension) technology.

Utilizing Prodesse's global distribution, the partnership positions Invitrogen's technologies in new market segments, serving a new customer base, the companies said.

LUX reagents are an "essential starting point" for a broad scope of drug discovery and molecular diagnostic applications, such as gene expression studies, biomarker analysis and functional genomics experiments, the companies said. LUX was developed to provide "improved sensitivity and specificity over traditional methods of analysis and the ability to examine multiple targets in one experiment."

"As we continue to rapidly increase our real-time products menu, access to Invitrogen's LUX platform is an important milestone," said Tom Shannon, president/CEO of Prodesse. "Now we can provide our customers with a technology that has significant design flexibility as well the tremendous advantage of conveying service rights that do not carry royalty burdens.

"Invitrogen's partnership with Prodesse is a natural evolution of our proven technology platforms and allows us to better serve our customers through collaborations with innovative diagnostic providers," said Gregory Lucier, CEO and chairman of Invitrogen. "Scientists in basic research and drug discovery and development have already found our LUX technology to produce more reliable data than many of the other quantitative PCR chemistries available."

Prodesse is developing analyte-specific reagents that can be used by CLIA-certified laboratories to develop assays for detecting disease pathogens.

In other agreements news:

• Henry Schein (Melville, New York), a provider of healthcare products and services to office-based practitioners in the North American/European markets, reported a distribution agreement with Imaging Sciences International (Hatfield, Pennsylvania), which develops advanced dental radiography products and 3-D diagnostic imaging.

The agreement will expand Henry Schein's diagnostic imaging offerings within the U.S. and Canada. Imaging Sciences reported sales of $25 million in 2005 in the U.S. and Canada.

Imaging Sciences says its products enable dentists to create anatomically accurate treatment plans for surgical procedures. Its flagship offering is the i-CAT Cone Beam 3-D Imaging System.

• Abaxis (Union City, California), a maker of blood analysis systems, said it has entered into a distribution agreement with Infolab (Greensboro, North Carolina) for Infolab to distribute the Piccolo chemistry analyzer and the line of Abaxis' reagent discs within the U.S.

Infolab specializes in equipment and supplies for the clinical laboratory in hospitals, physician offices, research facilities, universities and other facilities performing clinical laboratory testing.

Abaxis manufactures portable blood analysis systems for use in any veterinary or human patient-care or veterinary setting to provide clinicians with rapid blood constituent measurements. The system consists of a portable analyzer and a series of single-use plastic discs, called reagent discs, that contain the chemicals required to perform a panel of up to 14 tests on human patients and 13 tests on veterinary patients.

• Radlink (Redondo Beach, California), a provider of medical imaging systems to healthcare providers, reported that it has signed an agreement with JD Imaging (Mundelein, Illinois) to serve as master distributors of its breakthrough CR Pro machine to healthcare organizations in five Midwestern states.

JD Imaging, a provider of medical imaging systems, will be responsible for sales of Radlink's CR Pro machine in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan and Missouri.

Radlink's system uses a sealed fiber-optic laser technology to deliver diagnostic-quality images that provide long-term image quality.

"This agreement with JD Imaging Corp. gives us an important footprint in the Midwestern medical imaging market, and we're confident that their established local reputation will be instrumental in helping us to accelerate sales of CR Pro throughout the important five states in the region in which they'll be distributing the product," said Thomas Hacking, CEO of Radlink.