NEW YORK, June 13 – The life sciences division of Shimadzu has agreed to purchase Qiagen Genomics’ SNP analysis platform and license the technology, the companies said Wednesday.
The non-exclusive agreement calls for Shimadzu to purchase Qiagen Genomics’ genotyping chemistry and instrumentation for five years. Shimadzu of Japan will use the equipment to provide genotyping services to Japanese customers.
Seattle-based Qiagen Genomics, a subsidiary of Netherlands-based Qiagen will train and support Shimadzu users during the first year of the contract.
Financial details were not disclosed.
Qiagen Genomics’ SNP genotyping platform, called Masscode, attaches tags to each SNP in a sample, and uses a single quadrupole mass spectrometer to detect the quantity of each SNP. Currently, Qiagen has about 100 SNP tags available, and is developing an additional 300.
“Undoubtedly, the Masscode system will give a much sharper edge to Shimadzu's competitiveness in providing SNP genotyping services to researchers," Tetsuo Ichikawa, Shimadzu Biotech's chairman said in a statement.
Qiagen Genomics currently has a similar access and purchase deal with Daiichi Pure Chemical and research contracts with Agilent Technologies, The Institute for Genomics Research, the Montefiore Medical Center, the Genomics Collaborative, and the University of Washington.