Asuragen Grants Armored RNA® Technology License to BD

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Asuragen, Inc. has announced that it has granted BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), a global medical technology company, non-exclusive worldwide rights to incorporate Armored RNA® technology into its in vitro molecular diagnostics products.
Under the terms of the Agreement, Asuragen will develop and supply reagents for BD Diagnostics in Asuragen’s cGMP manufacturing facility. Additional terms were not disclosed.
Armored RNA® is a franchise technology jointly invented and developed by Asuragen and Cenetron Diagnostics for creating RNA and DNA standards for molecular diagnostic assays.
Armored RNA has been incorporated into most HIV and HCV commercially available diagnostic assays that measure viral load and consequently is the leading internal control for infectious disease molecular diagnostic IVD assays.
The Armored RNA technology encapsulates RNA standards in a protective protein coat, assuring their integrity during long-term storage and “armors” the RNA standard against the hazards of nucleases in patient samples.
RNA standards are essential to quantitative molecular diagnostic assays, and maintaining their integrity is crucial to obtaining accurate, reliable results. Asuragen recently released Armored RNA Quant®, the next generation of quantitative standards.
Armored RNA Quant® contains a precisely quantified copy number of a specific target and is referenced to a National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) traceable phosphate standard.
Armored RNA Quant® can be used to construct standard curves for quantitation and as an internal quantitative sample calibrator for infectious disease and oncology testing.
Asuragen has been introducing the technology into the oncology market and is developing it as an international inter-laboratory control standard for minimal residual disease testing.
Dr. Matt Winkler, CEO of Asuragen said, "We're pleased that yet another worldwide leader in molecular diagnostics has chosen Armored RNA® technology for its in vitro molecular diagnostic kits. Armored RNA controls, due to the nature of their reliability and integrity, have become the industry standard in a wide range of diagnostic tests."