US deal puts Axon on track for new screening product

Instrumentation and software developer Axon Instruments (ASX: AXN) has signed an exclusive deal with the US maker of an electrode device that can be used to scan potential drugs for use in heart disease, chronic pain, diabetes, high blood pressure and migraine.

The development and commercialisation agreement with Aviva Biosciences focuses on the use of the company's Patch-on-a-Chip planar electrode device for use in Axon's PatchXpress ion channel drug screening systems.

Axon said the collaboration kept it on target for the release of PatchXpress in the first half of 2003 or earlier.

Axon vice-president of screening technology Dr Andy Blatz said the technology could help ease large pharmaceutical company bottlenecks in testing hundreds of thousands of potential drugs.

"Our PatchXpress systems will give them a precise screening method capable of handling the high-throughput they require," Blatz said. "Aviva and Axon have been moving in the same direction to supply this need; it makes sense that we combine our different fields of expertise to produce a high quality, efficient ion channel screening system."

The Patch-on-a-Chip electrode devices, manufactured by Aviva, provide the microfabricated surface to which cells attach during testing.

The PatchXpress is a second generation, high-throughput ion channel screening system that, upon completion, is expected to enable more than 200 mammalian cells at a time to be voltage clamped, perfused with a drug and recorded.

The two companies have agreed to collaborate to achieve the highest possible rate of successful recordings from each electrode, with Axon gaining the exclusive marketing rights for the electrode upon completion.

Aviva's associate director for Ion Channel Projects Dr Jia Xu described Axon, an Australian-listed Californian company, as the ideal partner for its planar patch-clamp electrode technology.

"With Axon's expertise in patch-clamp acquisition equipment and software, and established market position, our chips can be used to their full potential," he said.

At the time of writing, Axon's shares were unchanged at 32 cents.