SUNNYVALE, Calif.--Molecular Dynamics here and Swedish biotech supplier Amersham Pharmacia Biotech announced two agreements in late April: a new collaboration with American Home Products and a continued Bristol-Myers Squibb collaboration.
Bristol Myers and American Home Products will collaborate separately with the two firms for continued development of new microarray technologies. Bristol-Myers will provide funding and technical expertise while gaining early access to integrated microarray systems, related support, and training programs jointly developed by Molecular Dynamics and Amersham. Bristol-Myers researchers will receive microarray spotting, hybridization, and optical scanning instrumentation and software from Molecular Dynamics along with matched reagents and consumables from Amersham.
The collaborators join a list of companies and institutions with preferential access to precommercial microarray technology produced by Molecular Dynamics and Amersham. Other collaborators include SmithKline Beecham, Zeneca, Axys Pharmaceuticals, Huntsman Cancer Institute, the Institute for Genomic Research, Chiron, DuPont Agricultural Products with Pioneer Hi-Bred and DuPont Merck, and Incyte Pharmaceuticals.
American Home Products' agreement gives its subsidiaries Genetics Institute and Wyeth-Ayerst Research access to the microarray platform as a productivity tool to supplement ongoing proprietary pharmaceutical research initiatives in functional genomics and drug discovery. Researchers at American Cyanamid, also within the American Home Products organization, will use microarrays to identify improved crop protection products and expand existing capabilities in agricultural biotechnology.