Exiqon A/S (NASDAQ OMX Copenhagen: “EXQ”), today announced that it has granted
a non-exclusive license to BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) to use Exiqon's
proprietary locked nucleic acids (LNA™) technology in defined products for
infectious disease diagnostics.
Exiqon will receive upfront and milestone payments, and royalty on global sales
of the products covered by this agreement. Financial terms of the agreement
were not disclosed. The U.S. DNA-based infectious diseases testing market is
estimated by Frost and Sullivan to exceed $2 billion in 2010. This agreement
marks the first time LNA™ will be applied in the development of FDA-cleared
diagnostic products.
“We are pleased to see BD has chosen to apply Exiqon's proprietary technology
enabling these exciting new diagnostic products,” said Lars Kongsbak, CEO &
President of Exiqon. ”We are excited that the LNA™ technology is now being
applied to advanced diagnostic products.”
Under the terms of this agreement, BD will market a number of defined
LNA™-enhanced products to run on the new BD MAX™ System, BD's next-generation
platform for molecular diagnostics based on real-time polymerase chain
reaction.
LNA™ provides unique characteristics to molecular assays and offers many
potential enhancements for developing advanced products. An inherent part of
Exiqon's strategy to capitalize on its proprietary LNA™ technology is through
license agreements within market segments that Exiqon does not plan to pursue
itself.
Additional information - Exiqon A/S:
Lars Kongsbak, President and CEO, tel. +45 4566 0888 (cell: +45 4090 2101)
Hans Henrik Chrois Christensen, CFO, tel. +45 4566 0888 (cell: +45 4090 2131)
See the full announcement in the attached PDF or at
www.exiqon.com/investor/portal
