NEW YORK (360Dx) – Netscientific said today that its portfolio company ProAxsis has signed a licensing agreement with Queen's University of Belfast for the university's ProteaseTag technology.
The deal gives ProAxsis exclusive intellectual property rights to the technology, which enables the measurement of active protease biomarkers. It is the second licensing agreement ProAxsis has signed with Queens for the technology. The first was established when the company spun out of the university in 2013.
ProAxsis is focused on developing protease biomarker-based point-of-care diagnostics for respiratory disease. Its first product is a laboratory-based immunoassay for the measurement of neutrophil elastase as a biomarker of lung infection and inflammation in chronic respiratory diseases, which the company registered with a CE Mark last year.
The company "is approaching a point where it will be able to commercialize its NEATstik point-of-care test based on the ProteaseTags technology," François Martelet, CEO of NetScientific and chairman of ProAxsis, said in a statement. "This agreement, which strengthens the company’s intellectual property portfolio, puts ProAxsis in a great position to launch further immunoassays and point-of-care tests and build the value of this technology."