NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – GenDx announced last week that it has become a European distributor of South Korean firm Infopia's GeneFinder human leukocyte antigen (HLA) real-time PCR assays.
The GeneFinder line includes kits for generic low-resolution HLA typing, as well as ones for the specific detection of HLA alleles linked to certain diseases, including ankylosing spondylitis and Behcet's disease. Assays for HLA-A, HLA-B, HLA-C, DQB, and DRB1 are approved as in vitro diagnostics in the European Union and in South Korea.
Specific terms of the deal were not disclosed, but GenDx said that it is allowed to sell the GeneFinder kits through its own local distributor network.
"We believe that next-generation sequencing and real-time PCR are the two techniques that are most suitable for fast and reliable HLA typing and chimerism monitoring," GenDx Cofounder and CEO Wietse Mulder said in a statement. "Chimerism monitoring assays for real-time PCR and HLA typing by [Sanger sequence-based typing] were already major products in our assortment. Therefore, HLA typing by real-time was the perfect addition to our product range."
Earlier this month, GenDx picked up the rights to offer Thermo Fisher Scientific's Ion Torrent next-generation sequencing systems and consumables as part of an HLA typing workflow used in transplant diagnostics. In December, the company became a non-exclusive seller of Illumina's NGS instruments, reagents, and maintenance contracts for HLA sequencing in certain European nations.