Agilent, QIAGEN ink SNP genotyping agreement

Companies to actively promote each others' technologies in combination for SNP genotyping

QIAGEN Genomics Inc. (Seattle), a wholly owned subsidiary of QIAGEN N.V. (Venlo, The Netherlands), today announced that it has entered into an exclusive reseller agreement with Agilent Technologies Inc. (Palo Alto, CA). Under the terms of the agreement, both companies will actively promote each others' technologies in combination for SNP genotyping. The agreement also calls for both parties to devise and develop applications of their respective technologies that may be used by pharmaceutical companies to develop better drugs and to advance disease discovery and pharmacogenetic research.

The agreement will leverage Agilent's single-quadrupole liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) with QIAGEN Genomics' Masscode technology to provide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping systems to be marketed by QIAGEN Genomics. In the second phase of the agreement, the companies will jointly develop new Masscode tag chemistry and mass spectrometry instrumentation solutions for SNP discovery, proteomics, and other applications. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

"QIAGEN Genomics has been using Agilent LC/MS systems for their in-house genotyping services since the Masscode technology was developed. We are very pleased to become their exclusive supplier of mass spectrometers for SNP genotyping systems which will be commercialized by QIAGEN Genomics," said Bill Buffington, vice president and general manager of Agilent's Life Sciences Business Unit. "We will work with QIAGEN Genomics to continually optimize the system for genotyping applications. We are also looking forward to developing new applications for the Masscode technology with QIAGEN Genomics that will benefit from the combination of the multiplexing format of their chemistry with Agilent's mass spectrometry systems."

Agilent Technologies Inc. is a diversified technology company with approximately 47,000 employees serving customers in more than 120 countries. Agilent is a global leader in designing and manufacturing test, measurement and monitoring instruments, systems and solutions, and semiconductor and optical components. For more information on Agilent's products and services, visit the company's storefront on Bioresearch Online.

QIAGEN Genomics provides commercial high-throughput SNP genotyping services. The company's proprietary Masscode system approach to SNP genotyping requires very small amounts of genomic DNA to perform extremely sensitive analyses. The company also offers nucleic acid extraction, DNA sequencing, and other genomics-related services in addition to Masscode technology access programs. To learn more about QIAGEN's products and services, visit the company's storefront on Bioresearch Online.

For more information, contact Doug Forsyth of Agilent at 650-485-5603 or doug_forsyth@agilent.com, or contact Peer Schatz of QIAGEN at +49-2103-2911-702 or p.schatz@de.qiagen.com.

With contributions from Jim Pomager
Assistant Editor, Bioresearch Online