1 February 2016
SAN DIEGO, Calif., February 1, 2016 – Agena Bioscience today announced its partnership with DaRui Biotechnology to co-develop a menu of in vitro diagnostic tests for oncology and inherited diseases on its MassARRAY® System for targeted genetic analysis.
“The China Market is a significant opportunity for Agena Bioscience, representing twenty percent of our global business. This past year, we established a subsidiary office in Shanghai and grew more than fifty percent in revenue,” said Pete Dansky, CEO. “To further our efforts, we sought a strategic partner with extensive expertise in the clinical diagnostics market.”
Under the partnership Agena Bioscience and DaRui Biotechnology will co-develop and commercialize targeted, multiplexed tests for oncology and inherited diseases tailored to the needs of the Chinese market. DaRui Biotechnology will conduct the requisite in-country clinical trials and submit the tests to the Chinese Food and Drug Administration.
“We see our partnership with Agena Bioscience as a key opportunity to offer cost-effective, targeted genetic tests to the market that will ultimately benefit more patients,” said DaRui Chairman, Dr. Ming Li. “We evaluated the MassARRAY System against our criteria including automation, ease of use, and flexibility for the clinical lab, and have selected it based on its proven performance.”
“We are proud to be chosen by DaRui, a leading molecular diagnostics company in China, which further validates the clinical utility of the MassARRAY System,” Dansky commented.
The MassARRAY System enables targeted, multiplexed testing of actionable genetic variants, providing a highly cost-effective and robust workflow that is ideal for clinical labs. Previously, the company announced a separate partnership with Diatech Pharmacogenetics to develop CE-marked lung and colon cancer panels for targeted testing for the European market.
Guangzhou DaRui Biotechnology Inc. operates product development, manufacture, distribution, technical service and consulting service. The company has long focused on screening of birth defect, inherit disease, oncology screening and diagnosis, and also effort on Next-Generation-Sequencing technology and the development of advanced immunodiagnostics. The company aims to be an influential corporation in the field of inherited disease and oncology diagnosis.
Agena Bioscience develops, manufactures, and supplies genetic analysis systems and reagents, including the MassARRAY System. The system is a highly sensitive, cost-effective, mass spectrometry-based platform for high-throughput genetic analysis, and is used globally in diverse fields such as cancer profiling for solid tumors and liquid biopsies, inherited genetic disease testing, pharmacogenetics, agricultural genomics, and clinical research. In the United States, the MassARRAY System is intended for research use only, and not intended for use in diagnostic procedures.