Agenix teams with Arrayjet on POCT project

Agenix (ASX:AGX) has partnered with Scotland’s Arrayjet Limited to develop a multiplex microarray test system.

The companies have signed a cooperation and cross-licensing agreement to create a point of care test (POCT) combining Agenix’s DiagnostIQ test platform with Arrayjet’s planar microarray technology. The eventual goal is to develop DiagnostIQ into a multiplex testing and screening system.

Agenix and Arrayjet plan to fund the development activities in part by research grants and R&D Tax Incentive rebates.

DiagnostIQ is a POCT platform technology originally developed by Tyrian Diagnostics. Agenix acquired exclusive royalty-free rights to use the platform for human applications in a $500,000 deal with Tyrian signed in October 2012. Bayer CropScience has the right to use the platform for agricultural purposes.

Arrayjet’s technology involves non-contact inkjet printing of multiplexed planar microarrays.

Agenix CEO Nick Weston said the collaboration has the potential to produce a platform that fulfils an unserved niche.

“There is a high unmet medical need for a platform able to do multiplexed affinity-based assays in low-resource or mobile settings,” he said.

Dr Ian McWilliam, CEO of Arrayjet, added that the companies eventually aim to “offer customers an end-to-end process, whereby they can rapidly translate a novel biomarker profile into a diagnostic tool presented on a reformatted version of DiagnostIQ”.

Agenix (ASX:AGX) shares were trading unchanged at $0.025 as of around 1 pm on Monday.