NextGen enters into agreement with Gene Oracle to acquire a global non-exclusive licence to its proprietary gene synthesis products and services in return for technology transfer fees and royalties
This in line with its strategy of further developing and introducing products and services to serve the drug discovery and diagnostics market, and to create a significant North American presence.
Pursuant to the agreement, the Geneios gene synthesis technology will be incorporated into a new generation of ContractExpress products to provide an additional value added component to the fee for service offering that NextGen announced earlier this year.
It is anticipated that the first commercial fee for service contracts to run using the combined technology will occur following a successful technology transfer phase, anticipated to complete in Q3 of 2006.
In addition, NextGen will offer the Geneios gene synthesis technology as a standalone gene synthesis product offering to complement the family of products that NextGen already offers in the gene-to-protein development market.
This agreement strengthens NextGen's position in the gene to protein market and expands the range of services that NextGen makes available to its customers.
Both companies believe this is an exciting first step towards the possibility of co-developing enhanced products and services to better serve both companies' client bases in the global gene-to-protein research market.
The agreement also incorporates a time bound purchase option, providing NextGen with the exclusive right to acquire 100% of the issued share capital of Gene Oracle on terms to be agreed.
Commenting on the agreement Tony Cox, president and co-founder of Gene Oracle said: "Gene Oracle has developed Gene Information Operating System (Geneios) to accelerate drug discovery by enabling greater access, expert optimization and sophisticated manipulation of existing and future genetic sequence data needed to create synthetic gene constructs.
"We are pleased to be engaged in this important alliance, the agreement provides an opportunity to expand our presence in the market through channels partners such as NextGen for our Geneios platform".
James Heffernan, CEO of NextGen said: "This agreement considerably strengthens our position as a company providing key products and services to customers specifically wishing to identify proteins of high commercial value, not only in the pharmaceutical and diagnostic markets, but also to anyone in the gene to protein research and development market, whatever the end application.
"The launch in late 2005 and ongoing commercialisation of our ContractExpress fee-for-service business has been a key goal for the company.
"Already we are running fee for service contracts with a number of internationally recognised pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and now we have access to the robust Geneios gene synthesis technology we believe this will not only reinforce our existing position in the market but will also position us to capture a share of the rapidly growing gene synthesis market in both Europe and the USA.
"In Gene Oracle we have an innovative partner with whom we can work to quickly market new products in response to the demands of both companies' customer bases."
