Transgenomic Expands License Agreement With Exiqon

Transgenomic, Inc. has signed an amended license agreement with Exiqon A/S for the expansion of rights to their proprietary Locked Nucleic Acid (LNA™) oligonucleotides, which offer dramatically improved sensitivity and specificity compared to traditional DNA chemistries. The amended agreement provides Transgenomic with access to LNA oligos for use with all of the company’s proprietary ultra-high sensitivity mutation enrichment technologies, including its Multiplexed ICE COLD-PCRTM (MX-ICP). It covers Transgenomic’s commercial worldwide use of LNA oligos for analysis of all cancer genes on all platforms, including cutting edge approaches such as next-generation sequencing (NGS).

“This expanded agreement supports the global commercialization of our revolutionary Multiplexed ICE COLD-PCR enrichment technology,” noted Paul Kinnon, President and Chief Executive Officer of Transgenomic. “Use of Exiqon’s LNA oligos with our MX-ICP technology significantly enhances identification of very low concentration cancer mutations in liquid biopsies. This is vital to enabling clinicians to initially choose the right mutation-targeted cancer therapy and also enables them to monitor the cancer and detect emerging resistance to drugs over the course of treatment.”

Mr. Kinnon continued, “Use of LNAs enables MX-ICP to work equally well in all tumor DNA analyses, whether in tissue biopsies or in blood- or urine-based liquid biopsies. The expanded agreement guarantees our access to LNA oligos for all of our ultra-high mutation enrichment technologies, including the multiplexed MX-ICP that makes possible simultaneous analysis of multiple mutations in multiple genes. It covers Transgenomic’s commercial use of LNA oligos worldwide for cancer genes on any platform and for all applications. This is pivotal as we build a global franchise for this powerful genetic analysis technique that has the potential to make precision medicine an everyday reality.”

Transgenomic’s Multiplexed ICE COLD-PCR offers major advantages for users of current sequencing technologies. It delivers at least a 100-fold improvement in sensitivity compared to standard methodologies and enriches both known and previously unknown genetic alterations in any gene  using a single multiplexed assay. The ultra-high sensitivity of MX-ICP makes it feasible to conduct comprehensive genomic analyses using either tissue or liquid biopsies. MX-ICP is both platform agnostic and compatible with all sequencing platforms found in labs today, including the newest ultra-high throughput NGS instruments. MX-ICP is robust, easy to use and easily implemented, requiring minimal disruption to established sequencing workflows.

“This expanded agreement with Transgenomic highlights the outstanding sensitivity and specificity, as well as the versatility of our LNA technology,” noted Lars Kongsbak, Chief Executive Officer of Exiqon.

“We welcome the opportunity to collaborate with technology innovators such as Transgenomic to bring the benefits of our unique chemistries to a variety of important applications.”