INNSBRUCK, Austria--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BIOCRATES Life Sciences AG, an Innsbruck, Austria-based metabolomics company, today announced that it has entered into a worldwide co-marketing agreement with Applied Biosystems, a leader in mass spectrometry.
Under the terms of the agreement, Biocrates will promote Applied Biosystems’ mass spectrometers for targeted metabolomics and for use in conjunction with their AbsoluteIDQ™ Kits. In addition, Applied Biosystems will promote Biocrates AbsoluteIDQ Kits for targeted metabolomics in conjunction with its triple quadrupole and QTRAP® series instruments.
Biocrates’ AbsoluteIDQ Kit will enable research organizations, such as the Gene Analysis Centre at the Helmholtz Zentrum in Munich, Germany, with an Applied Biosystems API 4000 or 4000 QTRAP® system to identify and quantify over 150 metabolites across four different metabolite classes from a small (10 microliter) plasma sample in only minutes per sample.
“The AbsoluteIDQ Kit enables complex metabolomics to be done quickly and easily. It paves the way for metabolomics to become a routine science in clinical and pre-clinical R&D, and eventually in diagnostics,” said Dr. J. Adamski, Head of the Gene Analysis Centre at the Helmholtz Zentrum, an early-access customer of Biocrates’ kits. “We are excited to work together with Biocrates and Applied Biosystems to have a complete metabolomics solution for our research.”
Klaus Weinberger, the Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) of Biocrates, said, “Metabolomics has been gaining ground as a critical technology for disease diagnosis and biomarker discovery. It is also being used increasingly as a tool to understand drug efficacy, pharmakodynamics, and toxicology. Metabolomics enables translational research from animals to humans because metabolites are exactly the same in different species and metabolic pathways are very similar.”
The agreement between Biocrates and Applied Biosystems comes on the heels of the launch of Biocrates’ AbsoluteIDQ Kit at Analytica in Munich, Germany. While the kits will initially only be available in Europe, there are plans to expand sales to the United States and eventually worldwide.
“This agreement will give us greater visibility in the emerging field of metabolomics,” said Brad Morie, Vice President of Business Development at Biocrates. “It will also drive awareness of metabolomics and sales of kits. We are delighted to be partnering with a world-class organization like Applied Biosystems.”
Tamara Bond, senior director of the pharmaceutical business at Applied Biosystems, said, “Metabolomics is a growing field expected to expand the market for mass spectrometers worldwide. Teaming up with Biocrates, an emerging leader in metabolomics, has resulted in kits tailored to the performance of Applied Biosystems/MDS Analytical Technologies mass spectrometers, ensuring that customers obtain the required levels of precision and accuracy in these quantitative analyses with an easy-to-use workflow.”
Applied Biosystems and Biocrates are expected to release joint marketing material and to conduct joint marketing activities at conferences. The next joint appearance will be the annual ASMS conference in Denver, CO in June 2008.
Applied Biosystems/MDS Analytical Technologies’ mass spectrometers are general purpose laboratory instruments. They have not been cleared or approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration or any other agency, or under the European IVD directive, for diagnostic or other clinical use, and are sold for research use only.
Contact:
Applied Biosystems Media Anthony Petrucci, Public Relations Manager +1-508-383-7961 anthony.b.petrucci@appliedbiosystems.com or BIOCRATES Life Sciences AG Media Karoline Obitzhofer, Marketing Manager +43/512/579823-4212 karoline.obitzhofer@biocrates.com
Source: BIOCRATES Life Sciences
