NEW YORK – Kantaro Biosciences, a joint venture of Mount Sinai Health System and RenalytixAI, announced on Tuesday that it has entered a marketing a distribution agreement with Atrys Health to distribute Kantaro's SARS-CoV-2 antibody tests.
Under the agreement, Atrys will offer Kantaro's quantitative SARS-CoV-1 IgG antibody kits, called COVID-SeroKlir and COVID-SeroIndex, in parts of Europe and South America, including Spain, Portugal, Colombia, Brazil, Peru, and Chile. The deal also includes Bio-Techne, Kantaro's manufacturing partner, the company said in a statement.Â
Financial and other terms of the deal were not disclosed. Kantaro previously inked a European distribution deal for the tests with EKF Diagnostics. EKF has exclusive rights for the SeroKlir test in the UK and Germany, and non-exclusive rights for SeroIndex for the European research market.Â
The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays have nearly 98 sensitivity and nearly 100 percent specificity for detecting IgG antibodies and utilize the receptor-binding domain and the full-length spike protein.
“We believe this type of antibody testing is increasingly relevant at this point in the pandemic to provide peace of mind and answer important questions about vaccine response, longevity, and immunity," said Sara Barrington, Kantaro's chief commercial officer.
The Kantaro tests received CE marking in October and the SeroKlir test got Emergency Use Authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration in November. The technology underlying Kantaro's tests is based on research from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.