BioTime (AMEX: BTX) Agreement with USCN Life Science to Source Antibody-Based Products
NYSE Amex: BTX initiated an agreements with USCN Life Science (USCN) of Wuhan, China, granting BTX an option to license USCN’s antibody-producing cell lines and certain related technology that may be used by BioTime and its subsidiary OncoCyte Corporation for the large-scale manufacture of the antibody components of PanC-Dx^TM.
- PanC-Dx^TM is a novel diagnostic technology discovered at BTX and OncoCyte that is intended to detect the presence of various human cancers, including cancers of the breast, lung, bladder, uterus, stomach, and colon, during routine check-ups;
- Initial studies performed by OncoCyte indicate that PanC-Dx^TM may be useful for detecting a much wider range of cancer types than can be detected by blood tests currently available to clinicians.
The Bottom Line: This option agreement for sourcing the antibody-producing cell lines will facilitate attainment of the goal of launching PanC-Dx TM for use in cancer screening in Europe in 2013, followed by entry into the US and other markets. This “option agreement”, BTX and USCN signed a distribution agreement granted BTX and its subsidiaries the right to market over 4000 diverse ELISA and CLIA kits for detecting a wide array of other proteins for the stem cell research market. Beginning in 2012, BTX plans to sell these research products through its subsidiary LifeMap Sciences, Inc.
