Cambridge, U.K.—Lab21 Ltd., a global player in the personalized medicine and clinical diagnostics markets, has secured a worldwide license from Cooperative Diagnostics to use the latter company's suite of patents and expertise for the development of Lab21's growing pipeline of molecular diagnostic  kits.

 

Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

 

Cooperative Diagnostics, based in Greenwood, S.C., has undertaken  what it calls "completely innovative approaches" to develop novel molecular technologies by using biophysical models and statistical bioinformatics. The company already has successfully commercialized a series of assays in the infectious disease area to demonstrate the capability of their technology.

 

“Lab21 has established a global business in immunodiagnostic assays. The company is also developing a pipeline of nucleic-acid tests. The Cooperative Diagnostics technologies bring powerful new tools to our development capability including fifth generation real-time PCR technology and we expect to launch our first CE marked companion diagnostic assays using this technology during the first half of 2012," said Graham Mullis, CEO of Lab21, about the deal. "These tests will be commercialized through our international distribution networks and particularly through our key global OEM partners.”

 

Dr. Berwyn Clarke, chief scientific officer at Lab21, noted that as part of this agreement Lab21 has exclusive use of this technology on a set of defined biomarker targets, particularly in the oncology and infectious disease areas. "Preliminary work has shown that assay development times can be reduced significantly and that performance is often better in terms of existing gold standards of sensitivity and specificity," Clarke added. "We expect the technology to deliver a substantial number of new assays in the first 12 months and will be of significant interest to pharmaceutical companies needing to fast track companion diagnostic development.”

 

For Cooperative Diagnostics, the deal means the ability to accelerate its rate of developing and deploying tests, noted the company's president and founder, Dr. Brent C. Satterfield, who added, "We are confident that our technology will provide a springboard to strengthen Lab21’s continued growth into the coming years.”