Dako, an Agilent Technologies Company, announces expanded collaboration with Amgen within companion diagnostics


GLOSTRUP, Denmark, March 24, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dako, an Agilent Technologies company and a worldwide provider of cancer diagnostics, today announced a new Master Collaboration Agreement with Amgen Inc., a leading biotechnology company.

The expanded collaboration will allow both companies to benefit from knowledge-sharing within the field of drug-diagnostic research and development in general, and in relation to companion diagnostic products in particular. This collaboration is important in the area of personalized medicine, where targeted treatments and companion diagnostics can help identify patients for whom a particular treatment may work, leading to improved patient care and more manageable healthcare costs.

"We are proud to both continue and broaden our multi-year partnership with Amgen," said Jacob Thaysen, president of Agilent's Diagnostics and Genomics Group. "Together we will continue our work in the development of high-quality companion diagnostic products to enable physicians and pathologists to identify cancer patients who are more likely to respond to a specific therapy."

Today's announcement follows several other collaborative agreements in the companion diagnostics area. Agilent's Dako business has partnerships with several top-tier pharma companies for the development of companion diagnostics. Its track record and experience in companion diagnostic development continues to attract new partners, as well as add new projects with current partners.

The financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

About Agilent Technologies and Dako Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:A), a global leader in life sciences, diagnostics and applied chemical markets, is the premier laboratory partner for a better world. Agilent works with customers in more than 100 countries, providing instruments, software, services and consumables for the entire laboratory workflow. Agilent generated revenues of $4.0 billion in fiscal 2014. The company employs about 12,000 people worldwide. In 2012, Agilent acquired Dako, a well-known provider of reagents, instruments, software and expertise to make accurate diagnoses and determine the most effective treatment for cancer patients. Information about Agilent is available at www.agilent.com and information about Dako is available at www.dako.com.

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