LabCorp licenses Sequella technology for TB assay development
NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Drug firm Sequella today announced the licensing of its B-Smart nucleic acid-based technology to Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings for an undisclosed amount.
Under the terms of the agreement, LabCorp will use the B-Smart system to develop a laboratory-based antibiotic susceptibility assay for Mycobacterium tuberculosis. LabCorp will also commercially use the assay in the US.
Rockville, Md.-based Sequella has retained the worldwide commercialization rights to the B-Smart technology for indications excluding tuberculosis, and for geographies outside the US for tuberculosis.
LabCorp will develop its assays combining nucleic acid testing with phage-based technology "to accurately and quickly identify any resistance of M. tuberculosis clinical isolates to antitubercular antibiotics, regardless of whether the resistance genotype is known," Sequella said in a statement. The assays will be able to identify microbes and drug susceptibility in a matter of hours or days depending on the bacterial species, it added.
Sequella said the B-Smart system is the first rapid nucleic acid-based technology that can detect drug resistance without prior information about the genes or mutations that cause resistance.
GenomeWeb
http://www.genomeweb.com/clinical-genomics/labcorp-licenses-sequella-technology-tb-assay-development
