Message #72 From:
Stock News Bot Date: March 7, 2007 02:24:00 AM
ABI News Veterinary Laboratories Agency, U.K. and Applied Biosystems to Commercialize New Avian Influenza and Newcastle Disease Detection Kit
LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Applied Biosystems (NYSE: ABI), an Applera Corporation business, and the Veterinary Laboratories Agency (VLA), a UK government agency specializing in animal disease surveillance and veterinary research, today announced a strategic collaboration to manufacture and commercialize the VLA’s molecular avian influenza and Newcastle disease environmental detection kits. These kits are expected to be broadly available in Europe and other parts of the world, such as Asia and Africa. This collaboration is intended to help early detection of these harmful bird diseases, which is a critical step in managing the threat posed by these diseases.
The VLA has used these tests to confirm that the avian flu strain that recently killed 2,600 turkeys in Suffolk, England was the H5N1 virus. It was the first reported case of H5N1 on a UK commercial farm. The agency said that early detection enabled immediate response to contain the outbreak. These tests have also been used in a follow-up enhanced survey of the wild bird population.
The goal of the VLA and Applied Biosystems agreement is to make these types of tests - known as assays - more readily available for the same type of early warning detection in various countries. In addition to the Influenza A virus and its H5 subtype, the assays are also expected to address the H7 subtype and Newcastle disease. The new assays are designed to rapidly and reliably detect a broad range of avian influenza strains in laboratory samples.
“This collaboration agreement between Veterinary Laboratories Agency and Applied Biosystems is an ideal opportunity to combine both VLA’s experience and expertise of these two very important avian diseases and Applied Biosystems’ expertise and manufacturing skills,” said Professor Steve Edwards, chief executive of VLA. “As with any notifiable disease, rapid confirmation is essential for control measures to be implemented quickly and to minimise the impact. These molecular detection methods should help to improve, sensitivity, specificity and turnaround time. We look forward to a long and successful partnership.”
Under the terms of the agreement, Applied Biosystems will commercialize the VLA real-time PCR assays. Real-time PCR is a laboratory method used to simultaneously detect and determine the amount of nucleic acids present in samples. Applied Biosystems was chosen due to its expertise in the area of avian influenza detection, its broad portfolio of avian flu kits based on TaqMan®real-time PCR technology, its commercial manufacturing scalability and its specialty in producing reliable tests that require fewer processing steps.
The VLA assays are veterinary molecular tests that are used in a laboratory. Applied Biosystems intends to further develop these assays in a new dry format designed to render more reliable results by consolidating steps in the testing process and minimizing manual procedures. The VLA will perform the validation prior to the release of the tests, which are intended for use in animal health laboratories around the world outside the United States.
Applied Biosystems currently has an installed base of over 1,400 real-time PCR platforms in public health laboratories across Europe, Asia, and Africa capable of running avian influenza TaqMan®assays. Applied Biosystems’ current TaqMan® Influenza A/H5 Detection Kits are manufactured in Warrington, UK. Today’s announcement extends the Applied Biosystems international initiative to ensure that detection kits and up-to-date genomic data are available for priority infectious disease threats.
“Laboratories responsible for disease surveillance in many different countries continue to increase preparations for any possible outbreak of avian influenza and other infectious diseases,” said Lars Holmkvist, president of Applied Biosystems, Europe. “Providing animal health laboratories with the tools for a reliable early warning system demonstrates Applied Biosystems’ commitment to support a global network of laboratories and to partner with leading agencies, such as the VLA, to bring reliable tests to market as quickly as possible.”
Avian influenza is an infectious disease of birds caused by the type A strains of the influenza virus. The H5N1 subtype has evolved into a virus that has the potential to infect humans. If contracted, it has the capability to cause serious illness or death in extreme cases. Certain strains of influenza A virus also have the ability to mutate into strains with differing pathogenic profiles. Newcastle disease virus is a highly contagious, notifiable disease caused by a Paramyxovirus, type 1, that affects domestic poultry and many species of wild birds. The clinical signs include depression, lack of appetite, respiratory distress, coughing and sneezing.
For research use only.Not for use in diagnostic procedures.
Applied Biosystems’ influenza detection products are for research use only and for health agency epidemiological use only in countries outside of the United States. They have not been cleared or approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration or any other regulatory agency, or under the European IVD Directive, for diagnostic or other clinical use, and are not intended and should not be used for diagnostic or any other clinical purposes. TaqMan® Influenza A/H5 Detection Kits and Applied Biosystems' other influenza detection kits are not for sale in the United States except under special research use only certifications.
About Applera Corporation and Applied Biosystems
Applera Corporation consists of two operating groups. The Applied Biosystems Group serves the life science industry and research community by developing and marketing instrument-based systems, consumables, software, and services. Customers use these tools to analyze nucleic acids (DNA and RNA), small molecules, and proteins to make scientific discoveries and develop new pharmaceuticals. Applied Biosystems' products also serve the needs of some markets outside of life science research, which we refer to as "applied markets," such as the fields of: human identity testing (forensic and paternity testing); biosecurity, which refers to products needed in response to the threat of biological terrorism and other malicious, accidental, and natural biological dangers; and quality and safety testing, for example in food and the environment. Applied Biosystems is headquartered in Foster City, CA, and reported sales of over $1.9 billion during fiscal 2006. The Celera Group is primarily a molecular diagnostics business that is using proprietary genomics and proteomics discovery platforms to identify and validate novel diagnostic markers, and is developing diagnostic products based on these markers. Celera maintains a strategic alliance with Abbott Laboratories for the development and commercialization of molecular, or nucleic acid-based, diagnostic products, and it is also developing new diagnostic products outside of this alliance. Through its genomics and proteomics research efforts, Celera is also discovering and validating therapeutic targets, and it is seeking to develop therapeutic products based on these discovered targets through strategic partnerships. Information about Applera Corporation, including reports and other information filed by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission, is available at http://www.applera.com/, or by telephoning 800.762.6923. Information about Applied Biosystems is available at http://www.appliedbiosystems.com/.
About the Veterinary Laboratories Agency:
VLA is a UK Government, Executive Agency of the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and is a regional network of 16 laboratories including one in Scotland, two in Wales, a central research and diagnostic testing facility near Weybridge in Surrey. The Agency is one of the largest research establishments of its kind in the world and is internationally recognised as a centre of scientific excellence. It has close international links with research institutes, universities and commercial companies and acts as an International Reference Laboratory for a wide range of infectious and non-infectious diseases in farm animals including avian influenza and Newcastle disease. The main aim of the Agency is to safeguard public and animal health by providing all sectors of the animal health industry with a wide range of applied veterinary research and consultancy on diseases of farmed livestock, diagnosis of diseases of statutory and public health importance and surveillance of new and emerging diseases throughout the country. These services are delivered through a series of integrated science programmes which include research and surveillance into TSEs, tuberculosis, avian influenza, food and environmental safety, the identification of new and emerging veterinary diseases and a comprehensive laboratory testing service.
Applied Biosystems Forward Looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking. These may be identified by the use of forward-looking words or phrases such as “should,”“expect,” and “planned,” among others. These forward-looking statements are based on Applera Corporation’s current expectations. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a “safe harbor” for such forward-looking statements. In order to comply with the terms of the safe harbor, Applera Corporation notes that a variety of factors could cause actual results and experience to differ materially from the anticipated results or other expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements. These factors include but are not limited to: (1) rapidly changing technology and dependence on the development and customer acceptance of new products; (2) risk whether the new kits will be successfully manufactured and commercialized through the collaboration, (3) sales dependent on customers’ capital spending policies; and (4) other factors that might be described from time to time in Applera Corporation's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All information in this press release is as of the date of the release, and Applera does not undertake any duty to update this information, including any forward-looking statements, unless required by law.
Applied Biosystems, AB (Design), Applera and Celera are registered trademarks of Applera Corporation or its subsidiaries in the US and/or certain other countries. TaqMan is a registered trademark of Roche Molecular Systems, Inc.
