Medical Device Link.

TRENDS & PERSPECTIVES

• Invetech (Mount Waverley, Victoria, Australia) opened a new office in San Diego to support the expansion of its client base. The 15,000-sq-ft facility adds design, engineering, and contract manufacturing services to Invetech’s North America–based capabilities.
  
  
• Orgentec Diagnostika (Mainz, Germany) introduced the Anti-MCV ELISA to identify highly specific rheumatoid arthritis auto­antibodies. MCV is a naturally oc­curring protein that increases the sensitivity, specificity, and prognostic impact of modified citrullinated Vimentin compared with the traditional cyclic citrullinated peptide.
  
  
• Epigenomics AG (Berlin) and DxS Ltd. (Manchester, UK) have signed a strategic cross-licensing agreement. The agreement grants Epigenomics worldwide nonexclusive rights to DxS’s proprietary Scorpions technology for R&D purposes, as well as the option to expand the license to IVD technologies. The contract also grants DxS a worldwide nonexclusive license to Epigenomics intellectual property covering the use of Scorpions technology for DNA methylation applications.
  
  
• Qiagen Gaithersburg Inc. (Gaithersburg, MD) was granted summary judgment on the antitrust counterclaims asserted by Third Wave Technologies Inc. (Madison, WI). Third Wave challenged Qiagen’s leadership in the HPV testing marketplace; however, the U.S. District Court ruled that Third Wave “failed to show any violations.”
  
  
• FDA has cleared Luminex Molecular Diagnostics’ (Toronto) xTAG respiratory viral panel for marketing. The multiplex platform test simultaneously detects and identifies 12 specific respiratory viruses, including influenza A subtypes H1 and H3, the most severe form of influenza for humans and the cause of major epidemics.
  
  
• Lee BioSolutions (St. Louis) announced the availability of high-purity human C-reactive protein (CRP) for the clinical diagnostic market. CRP is a blood protein that acts as an inflammation marker and indicates an increase of inflammation in the body. In addition to human CRP, Lee BioSolutions also offers rat and canine CRP.