BD Acquires Right to Negotiate Business Relationship for Accelr8’s BACcel® Technology
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Accelr8 Technology Corporation has announced that that Becton Dickinson and Company purchased an exclusive right on December 12, 2007 to negotiate for a business relationship to develop Accelr8’s BACcel® rapid diagnostic platform.
The right grants to BD an exclusive discussion period through March 31, 2008 during which the companies will explore a possible product development relationship and definitive terms for such a relationship.
If an agreement is reached, terms may include any of the elements or combination of elements of licensing, equity investment, joint development, or other mutually suitable product development and commercialization program. BD will pay Accelr8 $100,000 for the right.
According to David Howson, Accelr8’s president, “This agreement demonstrates serious interest in our rapid diagnostic platform by a leader in the clinical diagnostics market. BD recognizes the potential value of the BACcel system as a ‘fast front end’ that complements their automated culturing systems and gene analysis products.
The BACcel system uniquely addresses a critical need in hospital ICUs that no other technology now addresses. We target hospital acquired infections (HAI) and antibiotic resistance in pathogens that include the worst multi-resistant so-called ‘superbugs’ such as: MRSA, Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas, and emerging strains of Klebsiella and E. coli.
“With life-threatening infections, physicians need guidance for initial therapy within a few hours of a patient’s first presentation of symptoms. In the best of cases, culturing requires at least a full day to produce results, and that is too late to affect patient outcomes. The physician cannot wait that long to begin therapy and must proceed without specific guidance. Because of widespread and increasingly complex antibiotic resistance, approximately 20% to 40% of attempts with initial therapy prove inadequate.
“The nature of this agreement reflects BD’s desire to quickly explore and define mutually beneficial ways to seize this unique opportunity. BD could bring many resources to bear and speed the path to market, helping to further consolidate their leadership in managing infectious diseases,” Howson concluded.
