Luminex and Exiqon Announce Development and Commercialization Agreement

Luminex^® Corporation and Exiqon A/S have announced the signing of an agreement to co-develop and commercialize microRNA products.

Exiqon will develop and manufacture microRNA products on behalf of the Luminex Bioscience Group (LBG) based on Luminex's xMAP^® technology and Exiqon's Locked Nucleic Acid (LNA™) technology.

Patrick J. Balthrop, president and chief executive officer of Luminex, commented, "This development and commercialization agreement with Exiqon demonstrates Luminex's commitment to launch new products that meet the needs of a broad spectrum of end-users."

"In the coming months we expect to serve our customers with a superior product solution in a high growth market as LBG provides these microRNA products through our partner base."

"We anticipate this and other future LBG applications will significantly enhance our partners' leadership in multiplexed life science research and diagnostics."

Lars Kongsbak, president and chief executive officer of Exiqon, added, "Combining the ease-of-use and high multiplexing capacity of the Luminex xMAP platform with the high sensitivity and specificity of our LNA probes will result in a unique product offering."

"Luminex xMAP instruments hold a significant share of detection platforms in the life sciences industry in both the research and clinical settings."

"This collaboration will ensure our highly specific microRNA detection chemistries are broadly available to this market segment, which is an important strategic accomplishment for Exiqon."