NEW YORK – Madrid-based technology company Mecwins has entered into a licensing and co-development agreement with Quidel to create a next-generation point-of-care testing instrument, the firm announced Tuesday.
Quidel and Mecwins, which have been collaborating since 2019, intend to co-develop a platform capable of detecting and quantifying biomarkers from multiple sample types at sub-picogram concentrations. Mecwins will contribute a sensitive, high-throughput technology called AVAC while Quidel will contribute its expertise in cartridge and immunoassay design.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
The AVAC technology incorporates the use of localized plasmonic resonance detection with a standard sandwich immunoassay format.
Quidel CEO Douglas Bryant noted that ultrasensitive technologies capable of detecting targets below the picogram per milliliter level are currently used for biomarker discovery for infectious disease, cardiac, inflammation, autoimmune, and oncology indications.
"Taking [ultrasensitive technology] near the patient in a POC setting for an immunodiagnostic assay represents a challenge, but also a great opportunity to develop tests for better, faster clinical decisions," Bryant said.
Oscar Ahumada, Mecwins' CEO, said the co-development and licensing agreement with Quidel validates the firm's approach to develop ultrasensitive technologies for biomarker detection.
"Having the opportunity to collaborate with Quidel will allow us to access Quidel expertise in assay development and accelerate development and market introduction," Ahumada said.
Mecwins has previously collaborated with Scienion to produce a nanomechanical biosensor system called Scala for genetic analysis.