LONDON - Oxford GlycoSciences plc is seeking a second listing on Nasdaq to pave the way for future U.S. acquisitions.

Michael Kranda, CEO, told BioWorld International, "We haven't sorted out the details, but about a third of our investors are in the U.S., so it makes things easier for them, and it gives us a U.S. acquisition currency." OGS has no targets in mind at present, nor does it intend to use the listing to raise more money. The Abingdon, Oxfordshire-based company had #53.6 million (US$78 million) cash as of June 30.

OGS also announced a deal with Packard BioScience to develop protein chip technology for diagnostic machines, based around disease-related antigens OGS has discovered. This builds on OGS's agreement with Cambridge Antibody Group plc (CAT) to use CAT's antibody libraries to develop antibody-based microarrays for protein detection. "We are talking [in the Packard BioSicence deal] about creating a delivery vehicle for diagnostic tests."

OGS has already filed patents on 1,000 disease-associated proteins in cancer, neurological disorders and inflammation, discovered using its proteomics technology. The company has set the objective of finding 4,000 new targets by the end of next year. It will soon open a new proteome data production center, for industrial-scale, high-throughput identification and characterization of disease-associated proteins and their gene sequences.

"The race to find these proteins is on. We won't be doing anything differently, but we will be doing it faster," Kranda said.

OGS also has agreed with Applied Biosystems (formerly PE BioSystems) that it will get early access to the Foster City, Calif.-based company's generation of mass spectrometers. "Mass spectrometry is an important part of the back end of proteomics, and this agreement shows that Applied BioSystems sees us a leader in using this technology. We will get early access to prototypes, which again, should speed up target discovery."