Becton Dickinson’s BD Diagnostics and Lonza inked an exclusive licensing and collaboration deal to commercialize the latter’s microCompass™ molecular assays on BD Max™ system. The deal gives Lonza an exclusive worldwide license to co-market the BD Max system with the complete microCompass product line in selected fields within the pharmaceuticals and personal care products markets.
The firms are also collaborating on the development and optimization of what they claim will be rapid, automated, and easy-to-use microbial testing solutions that allow "load and walk away" operation.
The BD Max system for molecular testing uses microfluidics and molecular biology to fully automate nucleic acid extraction and recovery, PCR setup, amplification, and detection. The companies claim Lonza’s microCompass assays will facilitate rapid detection for total bioburden load, sterility testing, Mycoplasma, and a range of specific organisms.