Agenix opens new avenues with diagnostics deal
Thursday, 25 October, 2012
Agenix (ASX:AGX) has arranged to license a diagnostic device platform from Tyrian Diagnostics in a share swap deal.
Agenix will receive exclusive royalty-free rights to use Tyrian's DiagnostIQ point-of-care diagnostic test platform for human applications.
In exchange, Tyrian will receive Agenix shares worth $500,000 in instalments over the next 20 months.
The DiagnostIQ platform is a disposable device with applications in multiple point-of-care human, veterinary and agricultural tests.
Agenix has revealed plans to develop the DiagnostIQ technology into a micro-array device capable of processing multiple diagnostic tests through one system.
As part of the deal, Agenix will also acquire a patent for an antibody based test for active tuberculosis. Specifically, the patent covers a biomarker with the potential of distinguishing patients with an active TB infection from those infected in the past, or previously vaccinated.
Tyrian has been moving to sell down or license all its assets since late 2011, after Bayer CropScience decided to scale down its project to develop agriculture diagnostic products using DiagnostIQ.
The contracts with Bayer were terminated in April 2012, but Tyrian granted Bayer a non-exclusive license to the platform in exchange for royalties on net sales of products using the technology. Tyrian also received a US$325,000 settlement.
Agenix is Australia's oldest listed biotechnology company; the company listed on the ASX in October 1987, and boasts having taken more than 20 products from laboratory to market.
The company is now focused on gaining regulatory approval for ThromboView, its monoclonal antibody blood clot diagnostics candidate, and on developing small cell drugs including AGX-1009, a prospective hepatitis B treatment entering the clinical trial stage.
But Agenix has had a turbulent history, including a former CEO tried and convicted of defrauding the company out of an alleged $5.3 million during his tenure between 2003 and 2008.
Agenix (ASX:AGX) shares are steady at $0.003.
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