Proteomika, a subsidiary of Personalised Medicine leader Progenika Biopharma SA, announced today an option agreement with Auguron Biosciences, Inc, giving them rights to exclusive access in two autoimmune disease areas to use Auguron’s Nucleic Acid Programmable Protein Array (NAPPA) technology.
NAPPA technology was developed at the Harvard Institute of Proteomics and is protected by several issued and pending patents, licensed exclusively to Auguron Biosciences. The technology enables fresh, functional proteins to be generated on high density microchips from surface printed DNA.
The Agreement allows Proteomika to manufacture and use NAPPA technology at Proteomika´s facilities for Proteomika´s internal purposes and the performance of services to partners. At any time during the period, Proteomika may exercise the option to negotiate an exclusive license to NAPPA within the field of biomarker discovery pertaining to Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Lupus. Although the financial details were not disclosed, the companies have stated that the fundamental terms of the license are pre-agreed in the option.
“Having searched for quite some time, we realise NAPPA is the best choice in the proteomics horizon” said Laureano Simon, CEO of Proteomika. “For we want to explore the most powerful reservoir of biomarkers -the immune system.”
Auguron was formed in early 2007 to commercialize developments at the Harvard Institute for Proteomics (HIP). “Auguron is very excited about this agreement. It is the first disease-specific commercial venture for NAPPA and this option sets the stage for Proteomika to fully exploit the power of the platform in two very important disease areas” said Jim Richey, Co-Founder and Chief Executive of Auguron.
Proteomika´s CEO also commented: “NAPPA is the perfect complementary technology to Progenika´s expertise in Molecular Diagnostics, since we will be able to discover autoantibodies in a multiplex fashion. Lupus and IBD sufferers need better biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis and drug response.”
About Auguron Biosciences, Inc.
Auguron is a development stage, de novo start up founded by Dr. Joshua LaBaer, head of the Harvard Institute of Proteomics, his principle investigator, Dr. Niro Ramachandran and Mr. James Richey, an industry seasoned executive and CEO of Auguron. Auguron holds the exclusive license to the NAPPA array technology developed at Harvard and is forming an operation to produce NAPPA-based array products.
About Progenika Group
PROGENIKA, a pioneering company in the emerging field of personalised medicine, is dedicated to the design, development and manufacture of novel DNA genotyping microarrays for the diagnosis, prognosis and drug-response prediction of complex human diseases.
PROGENIKA has developed and clinically validated LIPOchip®, a microarray for the diagnosis of Familial Hypercholesterolemia that was marketed in June 2004, as the first CE-marked DNA microarray for routine clinical diagnosis. PHARMAchip®, a Drug Metabolism genotyping microarray and BLOODchip®, a Blood Group genotyping microarray were launched in 2007. A series of new diagnostic microarrays are under development or in late-stage clinical validation, including products targeting fibromyalgia, inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis and osteoporosis.
More than 100 scientists work in Progenika´s state of the art facilities in Cambridge, MA (USA) and Bilbao (Spain). The company’s comprehensive facilities for microarray design and manufacture are supported by an expert team of bioinformaticians who develop multivariate algorithms and software packages that allow user-friendly interpretation of clinical results.
About Proteomika S.L.
Proteomika S.L. specializes in protein biomarker detection. Proteomics technologies are used to search for diagnostic, prognostic and drug response biomarkers in urine, serum, lung wash or endometrial fluid samples Those biomarkers are later transferred into ready-to-use kits to diagnose prognose, predict or monitor drug response of human diseases. Technologies mastered for the development of the kits are Protein chip, Bead-based array or ELISA.
Contacts:
Juan Buela, (+34) 653 38 03 46
jbuela@progenika.com
or
Auguron
Biosciences, Inc.
James Richey, 843-846-1007
jrichey@auguron.com
