NEW YORK, May 7-Qiagen recently announced product development agreements to produce cell signalling oligonucleotide probes with Axxima and a new viral diagnostic system with Roche Diagnostics.
Through the Axxima agreement, announced yesterday, the two companies will develop probes to identify protein kinases and phosphatases. The partners will use Qiagen's new high sensitivity SensiChip microarray system and Axxima's specific experience with human protein kinases and phosphatases to establish sequence data.
Qiagen will add the data to its SensiChip arrays, and also has the rights to use the sequences in oligonucleotide sets. In exchange, Axxima will receive royalties on product sales.
Financial details were not disclosed.
Kinases and phosphatases are important in biomedical research because many enzymes of this class are involved in cellular signaling and transduction, processes key to many common diseases.
Axxima Pharmaceuticals is based in Martinsried, Germany. Based on its signal transduction research, it plans to develop new drugs for infectious diseases like HIV, influenza, and hepatitis viruses.
Qiagen also said today that it would work with Roche's Molecular Systems division to develop a new combined system to detect Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, and HIV-1.
The system will use Qiagen's automated sample preparation modules and Roche's PCR-based amplification and detection systems. It will be distributed by Roche Diagnostics and marketed to large labs that process more than 200 PCR hepatitis and HIV tests a day.
According to the companies, the system should be integrated, almost fully automated, and able to process a sample in less than six hours.
For more information, see Qiagen's website.