Commenting on this development, Panbio’s Acting CEO Dr Stuart Hazell stated: “The filing ofthis patent application not only protects the company’s intellectual property, but also is criticalto our commercialisation strategy. We now have a package to offer and can discuss theplatform more openly with potential licensees and partners.”
The international patent cooperation treaty (PCT) application covers the core developmentsin panDA Homogeneous Immunoassay technology as well as the novel aspects relating tothe HSV 1 & 2 prototype assays that were announced on 14 February 2007.
panDA is at the forefront of Panbio?s investment in developing new and improvedtechnologies for use in the diagnosis of disease. The successful commercialisation of panDAtechnology would bring a greater degree of simplicity, flexibility and speed to theimmunoassay process, which would improve efficiency and expand capacity.
The technology represents a potentially great advance in medical and veterinary diagnostics.Reduced diagnostic test processing times down to as little as 10 minutes are possible, downfrom up to three hours using current technology. Quicker diagnosis will benefit patients,physicians and clinical laboratory customers.
Furthermore, the technology allows immunoassays to be performed in fewer steps, heavilyreducing the complexity of performing assays by instrument or by manual operation, hencereducing costs and the potential for operator error.
The Research Team Leader for the panDA project, Dr Charlie Huang, said, “It is rewarding tosee that the hard work of the research team has generated such a positive outcome.”
While this announcement represents a further advance for the company, there remains alevel of technical and commercial risk with respect to the project.