Immunicon Enters into License Agreement with Kreatech

Immunicon Corporation has announced that it has entered into a supply and marketing license agreement with Kreatech Biotechnology of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, for Kreatech's proprietary Universal Linkage System (ULS™) technology.

The agreement enables Immunicon to use ULS technology in conjunction with Immunicon's technologies.

The agreement follows the completion of internal evaluation by Immunicon of ULS labeled centromere probes for detection of abnormalities common to cancer cells.

Immunicon plans to develop assays for use in confirming whether certain cells of epithelial origin in a sample of a patient's blood are cancerous.

Leon W.M.M. Terstappen, Immunicon's Senior Vice President of Research and Development and Chief Scientific Officer, commented, "This represents an important technology advance for Immunicon because we have demonstrated that cells in patient blood samples can be subjected to molecular analysis after they have been processed on Immunicon's technologies."

"Samples that contain as few as one circulating tumor cell (CTC) can now be analyzed for the presence or absence of chromosomal abnormalities and for experiments involving gene amplification."

"The increase in specificity that ULS technology provides may enable us to develop products and services in earlier stages of disease, such as initial detection of cancer and detection of cancer recurrence."

"Furthermore, the ability to assess amplification of specific genes in cancer cells may allow us to identify and determine the presence or absence of specific therapeutic targets."

Byron Hewett, Immunicon's President and CEO commented, "We are excited about the opportunity to develop and offer commercial assays incorporating Kreatech's technology initially as a service for the benefit of pharmaceutical and biotechnology customers engaged in life science research and anti-cancer therapeutic development."