Affymetrix Announces a Global Distribution Agreement With Almac to Distribute Its Proprietary Xcel™ Array for Translational...
March 29 2012 - 7:30AM
Business Wire
Affymetrix, Inc. (NASDAQ:AFFX) today announced that it has
signed a global distribution agreement with Almac Group Ltd., an
established company that provides an extensive range of
pharmaceutical services. In this agreement, Affymetrix has
exclusive rights to distribute Almac’s Xcel™ array for research use
in biomarker discovery for multiple disease areas, including
cancer.
The Almac’s Xcel™ array is a microarray, built on the
industry-standard Affymetrix’ GeneChip® Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0
Array platform (RUO*), that has been optimized for RNA expression
profiling from formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) samples.
Standard collection practice is to collect tissue samples and
store them as FFPE samples. The ability to extract accurate and
high-quality gene expression information from FFPE samples will
have a significant impact in enabling new discovery and validation
from this valuable tissue source.
“Almac’s Xcel™ array, with its superior design and content
derived from multiple cancer types, is an ideal microarray for gene
expression profiling from FFPE tissues, unlocking previously
inaccessible genetic content for translational research,” said
Kevin Cannon, PhD, Expression Business Lead at Affymetrix.
“Researchers now have the ability to carry out retrospective
studies for discovery and validation of gene expression biomarkers
for translation into clinical practices. This array represents a
significant technology advancement, and combined with Genisphere’s
Sensation™ reagents addresses a much needed FFPE workflow solution
for gene expression profiling and biomarker discovery.”
Almac’s Xcel™ array contains over 97,000 transcripts, including
all of the Affymetrix’ GeneChip® Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Array
content, updated RefSeq content, and substantially new content such
as long non-coding and endogenous antisense transcripts. The
inclusion of all of the content from GeneChip Human Genome U133
Plus 2.0 Array allows cross-mapping between existing data sets and
new data generated from the Xcel™ array. The substantial and high
quality content on the Xcel™ array ensures that the platform
technology is ideally suited for research in cross-disease
areas.
“We are very pleased to have entered into this distribution
agreement with Affymetrix. The Xcel™ array has proven to be
extremely useful in our hands for biomarker discovery, both for our
in-house R&D and for our research clients. This agreement with
Affymetrix enables more researchers to derive benefit from the
platform for their translational research,” said Michael Sloan,
Vice President of Business Development of Almac Diagnostics.
Affymetrix will officially launch the Xcel™ array at the AACR
2012 annual meeting in Chicago, March 31 – April 3.
* = For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic
procedures.
About Almac
Almac’s Diagnostics business unit is focused on the discovery
and development of biomarkers. It utilizes its proprietary
technology, extensive experience and expertise to offer solutions
to biotech and Pharma partners. Almac focuses on providing a range
of services including exploratory biomarker discovery studies,
verification studies for existing markers, assay development, and
biomarker validation.
The Almac Group provides a broad range of services from R&D,
biomarker discovery and development, API manufacture, formulation
development, clinical trial supply and IXRS® technology
(IVRS/IWRS), to commercial-scale manufacture. Almac provides
services to more than 600 companies, including all the world
leaders in the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors. The company
employs over 3,300 individuals and is headquartered in Craigavon,
Northern Ireland. US operations are based in Pennsylvania, North
Carolina, and California.
For more information about the Almac Group, please visit
www.almacgroup.com or e-mail info@almacgroup.com
About Affymetrix
Affymetrix technology is used by the world's top pharmaceutical,
diagnostic, and biotechnology companies, as well as leading
academic, government, and nonprofit research institutes. More than
25,000 peer-reviewed papers have been published using the
technology. Affymetrix is headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., and
has manufacturing facilities in Santa Clara, Cleveland, Ohio, and
Singapore. The company has about 900 employees worldwide and
maintains sales and distribution operations across Europe, Asia,
and Latin America. For more information about Affymetrix, please
visit http://www.affymetrix.com.
Forward-looking statements
All statements in this press release that are not historical are
"forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 21E of
the Securities Exchange Act as amended, including statements
regarding Affymetrix' "expectations," "beliefs," "hopes,"
"intentions," "strategies" or the like. Such statements are subject
to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to
differ materially for Affymetrix from those projected. These and
other risk factors are discussed in Affymetrix' Form 10-K for the
year ended December 31, 2010, and other SEC reports for subsequent
quarterly periods.
PLEASE NOTE: Affymetrix, the Affymetrix logo, GeneChip,
and all other trademarks are the property of Affymetrix, Inc. All
other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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