AdnaGen, a subsidiary of OncoVista Innovative Therapies, a global biotech company developing proprietary, early detection and drug technologies, has entered into an option agreement to license specific antibodies to KellBenx.
As per the license agreement, KellBenx is expected to obtain exclusive worldwide rights to commercialise the antibodies, which enable the extraction of clinically relevant information from maternal blood through a test that could be available as early as 2011.
The KellBenx process involves the enrichment of Fetal Nucleated Red Blood Cells’ (FNRBC) with the antibodies licensed from AdnaGen, namely Monoclonal Antibodies with Specificity for Fetal Erythroid Cells, to perform chromosomal or genetic analysis to identify markers of potential disorders.
Hassan Bennani, CEO of KellBenx, said: “Our agreement with AdnaGen is exciting because for the first time we have an antibody specific enough to detect fetal cells in maternal blood to allow noninvasive prenatal testing.”
Alexander Weis, CEO of AdnaGen, said: “AdnaGen’s ability to assist KellBenx’s proprietary non-invasive prenatal diagnosis detection and diagnostic products further validates our technologies as well as the broad range of our therapeutic applications. While addressing critical medical need significantly assists physicians and the medical system, in the final analysis, it is the patient that derives the greatest benefit. Bennani and his team share that vision.”