Singapore, Dec 08, 2011: German company, Protagen, a specialist for in-vitro diagnostics and GMP-compliant protein analysis, and Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals, a global leading specialty pharmaceuticals company, have announced the start of a new collaboration project for the clinical validation of diagnostic biomarkers in Endometriosis.

This new cooperation project builds on the results of the Endometriosis biomarker discovery study performed last year, and is already the third UNIarray Project within the collaboration between the two partners in the last three years.

Endometriosis is a debilitating gynecological medical condition occurring in roughly 5 percent -10 percent of women worldwide. The golden standard of diagnosis is currently performed by laparoscopy, a visual inspection of the abdominal organs followed by surgical removal and examination of lesions. Aim of the current study is to employ the UNIarray technology for the predictive diagnosis of Endometriosis and to improve patient’s quality of life. In order to understand the biochemical and molecular biological processes of Endometriosis, new technologies like UNIarray are becoming increasingly important.

“With the targeted advancement of the UNIarray technology platform, Protagen has developed into a preferred partner for drug development companies”, stated Dr. Peter Schulz-Knappe, CSO and Executive Vice President Diagnostics at Protagen. Besides Endometriosis, our technology is applied in autoimmune diseases like Multiple Sclerosis, chronic inflammatory diseases and cancer. Cooperation partners are, amongst others, Bayer, Biogen-Idec und SuppreMol.”