China Medical Technologies, Inc (CMED.NSDQ), a China-based advanced in-vitro diagnostic (‘IVD’) company, and Leica Biosystems, a division of Leica Microsystems, a provider of microscopes and scientific instruments, have announced that they have established a sales, research and development collaboration to co-develop and market automated FISH kits to be used on the Leica BOND system. CMED will sell the Automated FISH Kits in China and Leica will have an option to sell the FISH kits in the rest of the world. Under the collaboration, CMED and Leica Microsystems will
jointly develop automated FISH solutions for tissue sample tests on HER-2, EGFR and TOP2A on the Leica BOND system, an automated advanced staining platform. HER-2, EGFR and TOP2A are genes in connection with the
targeted cancer therapy drugs for breast cancer, lung cancer and stomach cancer patients. Automation of these FISH tests on the Leica BOND system will enable pathology laboratories and independent service laboratories to run
these diagnostic tests more efficiently and with higher and more consistent quality. “These collaborations with Leica mark a significant milestone for us,” commented Mr Xiaodong Wu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of CMED.
“We believe that FISH applications will be more widely used in various clinical applications on automated basis in the future.”