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Abott Laboratories and Celera Diagnostics form alliance to develop and market molecular diagnostic products

Alliance to capitalize on extensive dicsovery effort to identify new diagnostic markers for disease

26 Jun 2002 - Abbott Park, Illinois and Alameda, California June 24, 2002 — Abbott Laboratories and Celera Diagnostics, a joint venture between the Applied Biosystems Group and the Celera Genomics Group of Applera Corporation, today announced a long-term strategic alliance to develop, manufacture and market a broad range of in vitro molecular diagnostic products for disease detection, disease progression monitoring and therapy selection.
 
The alliance, the most comprehensive in its field, plans to develop and commercialize molecular diagnostic products to detect and manage infectious diseases and chronic conditions such as cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases, central nervous system disorders and cancer. Approximately 250 scientists and engineers from the two companies will initially be devoted to the program, which will encompass a large-scale discovery effort to identify new diagnostic markers. Celera Diagnostics will focus primarily on genetic marker discovery, new marker validation and assay development. Abbott will focus on product development, sales and marketing — serving as the worldwide distributor for most products developed by the alliance.
 
Under the terms of the agreement, Abbott and Celera Diagnostics will share both expenditures and profits related to research, development, manufacture and commercialization of new molecular diagnostic products. All relevant Abbott and Applera technologies and patents will be available to the alliance, including instrumentation from Applied Biosystems and genomic data and analytical tools from Celera Genomics. A joint review board composed of members from both companies will manage the alliance. Alliance activities will not include the development or commercialization of proteins, immunoassays or products in the research or pharmaceutical market. Other terms of the arrangement were not disclosed.
 
"This alliance complements Abbott's capabilities and enables us to access Celera Diagnostics’ expertise in genomics discovery as well as other Applera capabilities and technologies critical to ensure success," said Edward Michael, vice president, Commercial Operations, Diagnostics, Abbott Laboratories. "This will help accelerate our joint strategy to develop and market a broad menu of next-generation molecular diagnostic products focused on unmet diagnostic needs."
 
"Our mutual goal is break-through products leading to earlier detection of life- threatening diseases, and improved selection of effective treatments," said Kathy Ordonez, president, Celera Diagnostics. "Our collaboration with Abbott is expected to accelerate the successful commercialization of new molecular diagnostic products that realize the potential from the mapping of the human genome and the large-scale disease association studies already on-going at Celera Diagnostics."
 
Molecular-based diagnostic tests identify genetic information associated with human disease, and can help predict and monitor individual patient responses to therapies. The $1 billion molecular diagnostic market is growing at the industry's highest rate — more than 25 percent per year.