• Affymetrix (Santa Clara, California) reported entering into a five-year collaboration with Duke University (Durham, North Carolina) to analyze genomic information across large patient samples. Duke researchers will use Affymetrix GeneChip microarray technology to develop new applications for translational research projects. The initial projects will focus on cancer and cardiovascular disease.

• Applied Biosystems Group (Foster City, California), an Applera business, reported that it has entered into a collaboration agreement with Hitachi High-Technologies, an affiliate of Hitachi, Ltd. (Tokyo) to develop and commercialize capillary electrophoresis (CE)-based DNA analysis technologies. This agreement extends the term of and also amends an existing collaboration agreement that began in 1997. Applied Biosystems and Hitachi High-Technologies will continue to be exclusive collaborators in the development and commercialization of CE-based instruments for research, applied market and diagnostic applications. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

• Clinical Data (Newton, Massachusetts), a developer of pharmacogenomics and clinical diagnostics, said it has entered into a collaborative research agreement with the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI; Pittsburgh). Clinical Data, acting as the study sponsor, will apply metabolomics analysis to serum samples from a population of patients diagnosed with lung cancer and matched control subjects without lung cancer recruited as part of the National Cancer Institute-funded Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) in Lung Cancer at the UPCI. The serum samples will be provided to Clinical Data by the UPCI. The collaboration will pursue what the company believes is the first metabolomics study in a lung cancer population.

• Corautus Genetics (Atlanta) said that it has entered into an agreement through which it will support the clinical trial of Caritas St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center (CSEMC; Boston) to evaluate the safety and efficacy of VEGF-2 for the treatment of patients suffering with moderate or high-risk critical limb ischemia (CLI). Corautus will provide its vascular endothelial growth factor, VEGF-2, to CSEMC for evaluation in a 64-patient, Phase I trial for the treatment. CSEMC is the sponsor of the trial, under a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH; Bethesda, Maryland). If Phase I trial data is promising, Corautus has the right to utilize and reference the CSEMC clinical trial data as part of its own CLI program.

• HemoSense (San Jose, California) said that it has signed a marketing and distribution agreement with ZyCare (Chapel Hill, North Carolina) to integrate the use of HemoSense’s INRatio PT/INR Monitoring system with ZyCare’s Web-based CoagCare system for patient self-testing through physician practices and hospital clinics. INRatio is a portable Prothrombin Time/INR testing monitor, and CoagCare is the only FDA cleared, HIPAA compatible remote INR test reporting and dosage management system for patients on oral anticoagulant therapy. CoagCare enables patient home monitoring, using INRatio remotely.

• Imagin Molecular (Oak Brook, Illinois) reported entering into an agreement with PET Management Services (PMS; Niagara, New York) for bioinformatics research and imaging center management. PMS will assist Imagin Nuclear Partners (INP) to deliver specialized evidence-based solutions for cardiac diagnostics and treatments using that demonstrates cost savings to insurance companies when cardiac PET is performed on selected patients as a first line test rather than traditional single photon computed tomography (SPECT) scans.

• Synergetics USA (O’Fallon, Missouri), a manufacturer of medical devices for ophthalmic surgery and neurosurgery, reported signing a three-year distribution agreement with Codman & Shurtleff, a business of Johnson & Johnson (New Brunswick, New Jersey) for certain Synergetics supplies. Codman & Shurtleff will distribute bipolar generators and related disposables and accessories. First-year sales under the distribution agreement are estimated to be about $6.5 million. Synergetics also said in a release it will license to Codman, on a royalty bearing basis, the MALIS trademark owned by Synergetics for use with certain Codman products. This agreement also is for three years.

• Source Scientific (Irvine, California) has been selected by NeoMatrix (Irvine, California), inventor of the HALO breast cancer screening system, to manufacture this system at its new Irvine manufacturing facility. NeoMatrix said it will introduce the HALO product this year after a successful test-marketing program. Production of the HALO system is expected to begin in 1Q06. Source Scientific said it expects to increase its manufacturing staff by about 15%. Source Scientific provides design and production services exclusively to medical device companies.

• Synthetic Blood International (Costa Mesa, California), a developer of oxygen therapeutics and continuous substrate monitoring technology, and Utek (Plant City, Florida), a technology transfer company, signed an agreement in which Utek will seek to identify the licensing of technologies and intellectual property to Synthetic Blood in the areas of therapeutic oxygen delivery and biosensors.