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OpGen Inks Deal to Use Thermo Fisher PCR Tech in Acuitas Gene Panel Tests

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – OpGen announced today that it has signed an agreement to use Thermo Fisher Scientific's real-time PCR technology in its line of Acuitas AMR Gene Panel tests.

Earlier this month, OpGen launched the first Acuitas test, a research-use-only panel designed to detect the most common bacterial causes of complicated urinary tract infections (UTIs) from urine and isolated colonies, as well as 47 antibiotic resistance-linked gene targets. The company is also planning clinical trials to support regulatory submissions for the broader clinical use of the test in patients with complicated UTIs.

Under the terms of the deal, OpGen will incorporate Thermo Fisher's TaqMan Fast Advanced Master Mix and TaqMan probes into the u5.47 test for multiplex gene detection. Genetic results from the test can then be analyzed by OpGen's Acuitas Lighthouse Knowledgebase bioinformatics system.

Additional terms were not disclosed.

In mid-2017, OpGen inked a deal to commercialize its Acuitas test for pathogen identification and antibiotic resistance gene detection on Thermo Fisher's QuantStudio 5 RT-PCR system.

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