NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) - Axis-Shield said today that it has signed an agreement with Bio-Rad Laboratories for an option to commercialize heparin binding protein as a marker of severe sepsis.
Under the terms of this agreement, Bio-Rad will have the right to develop the HBP marker for use on its proprietary laboratory instruments globally.
Additional terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Axis-Shield said that preliminary studies evaluating HBP's ability to detect sepsis have shown "improved specificity and sensitivity compared to existing methods."
Bio-Rad and Axis-Shield previously signed a similar agreement for Axis-Shield's anti-CCP technology for the early detection of rheumatoid arthritis.
That test, which measures anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies and runs on Bio-Rad's BioPlex 2200 system, was cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration last October.