International Murex Technologies said that it has signed adevelopment and license agreement with Digene Diagnostics ofSilver Spring, Md., for DNA probe product development incertain areas of infectious disease, including retroviruses,hepatitis and mycobacteria.

Murex of Norcross, Ga., and Digene will both market theseproducts through their distribution networks to clinicallaboratories and hospitals worldwide.

The products to be co-developed under the agreement will bebased on Digen's proprietary Hybrid Capture DNA probetechnology, Digene said.

Murex has been marketing Digene's hepatitis B and humanpapilloma virus DNA probe tests in Europe and other regionssince 1992 and 1993, respectively.

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