NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Angle announced today that it has signed an option agreement with Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) for an exclusive worldwide license for the use of its megakaryocyte intellectual property.
Angle's Parsortix system can harvest both mesenchymal circulating tumor cells, which are linked to poor patient outcome, and megakaryocytes, which are linked to positive patient outcome. The company believes that combining these two factors may provide new insights into patients' conditions.
Under the terms of the deal, the UK-based biopsy firm will continue to hold the rights over its existing Parsortix IP as well as its downstream megakaryocyte analysis technology. QMUL will have the right to file patents for recent findings using Parsortix.
Earlier this year, QMUL published research in Clinical Cancer Research using the Parsortix system, demonstrating that the number of megakaryocyte cells in prostate cancer patients' blood correlates closely with increased patient survival. Barts Cancer Institute, which is part of QMUL, is researching whether megakaryocyte analysis might provide medical insight in multiple cancer types.
"We believe megakaryocytes in patient blood may play a key role in the body's immune response to all solid cancer types not just prostate cancer, and we are currently investigating this in several other cancer types," principal investigator and Barts researcher Yong-Jie Lu said in a statement.
QMUL has filed two patent applications associated with the findings. Angle has signed a two year license to the patents covering any medical, therapeutic, diagnostic, or prophylactic application, and has agreed to cover the costs of prosecution.
"Use of the Parsortix system is driving new discoveries by key opinion leaders and customers and Angle is the obvious partner to drive their commercialization," Angle CEO Andrew Newland said in the statement. "We expect to see other developments over time continually strengthening the company's position in the market."
Earlier this week, Angle said that it had inked a comarketing agreement with Qiagen for CTC technology.