NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Thermo Fisher Scientific has exclusively licensed rights to Proteome Sciences’ TMT isobaric mass tag technology, the Cobham, UK-based firm announced yesterday.
Proteome Sciences will manufacture the TMT reagents and Thermo Fisher will market and sell them through its Pierce product line. The TMT patents expire in 2021, and Thermo Fisher has the right to provide third-party commercial licenses for use of any type of isobaric tandem mass tags.
The mass tags are used with mass spectrometry for biomarker discovery, validation, and assay development.
Proteome Sciences retains rights to use the technology for its own research as well as custom labeling and assay development for customers using its TMTcalibrator and TMT Reference Materials. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Proteome Sciences said that it would receive a signature fee, contract manufacturing payments, and royalties and sales milestone payments.
Ian Jardine, vice president of global research and development for Thermo Fisher, said that the firm expects to make TMT products available during the second quarter of this year.
“By relying on Thermo Fisher’s comprehensive sales channels for volume catalog products, Proteome Sciences can focus on custom labeling services and products,” Proteome Sciences CEO Christopher Pearce said in a statement. “We see considerable demand for these services and anticipate that they will generate substantial and rapidly growing revenues.”