Lynx Expands, Accelerates Takara Agreement

NEW YORK, Jan. 9-Japan's Takara Bio has expanded its license agreement with Lynx Therapeutics, Lynx said today.

Under the original agreement, signed in November 2000, Takara received exclusive rights for five years to use Lynx's proprietary cloning and expression technologies (Megaclone, Megasort and Massively Parallel Signature Sequencing) for discovery services and microarray development in Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan.

In the newly expanded agreement, Takara's exclusive rights to these technologies in those countries is expanded through the life of the patents. The Japanese firm also secures the nonexclusive right to provide genomic discovery services in France and Italy, an agreement that entitles Lynx to royalties.

In return, Takara has advanced its fee payment and stock purchase schedule. A payment to Lynx scheduled for 2003 was made in December 2002. Payments slated for 2004 and 2005 will also be moved forward.

Because the company's stock has traded below $1.00 since July 31, Lynx received a Nasdaq delisting warningon Dec. 13. The company said in December it would appeal the notice, and is "exploring various alternatives" to avoid being removed from the exchange.