Australian biotechnology company Cellmid has entered into an option agreement with Japanese company Fujikura Kasei.
Under the option to license agreement, Cellmid will supply its proprietary anti-midkine diagnostic antibodies for validation on Fujikura's proprietary latex diagnostic platform.
Midkine, which has been validated as an early marker for various cancers, has been shown to be useful in prognosis and disease management.
Fujikura Kasei medical project division head Hideyuki Kuroda said, "We are very excited about this opportunity as the midkine diagnostic platform lends itself to multiple, high value product development opportunities."
Cellmid's MK-ELISA detects midkine to a limit of 8 picogram/mL, and Fujikura is planning to use the same antibody pair to achieve a limit of detection (LOD) close to that level on its latex platform.
Fujikura said the license agreement will proceed on condition when it is able to reach LOD of 500 picogram/mL midkine in serum on its latex platform.
Cellmid will receive an initial fee and a further payment should Fujikura elect to exercise its license option.
Fujikura will also pay royalties to Cellmid upon selling any future midkine diagnostic products.
Fujikura has regulatory and product development programs in place to accelerate the path to market.
Cellmid CEO Maria Halasz said, "Fujikura is the ideal partner for us as they have a strong focus on building their medical diagnostic business and consider midkine an important part of this commercial expansion."