Subject: Cambridge Signs Pact On Marketing Rights For New AIDS Test
Date: Published: 10/15/87 49 lines
Source:  WALL STREET JOURNAL. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

    Cambridge Signs Pact
    On Marketing Rights
    For New AIDS Test

    WORCESTER, Mass. -- Cambridge BioScience Corp. said it
 signed an agreement giving Baxter Health Care Corp. exclusive
 world-wide marketing rights to a five-minute diagnostic test
 for acquired immune deficiency syndrome.
    Terms weren't disclosed.  But the biotechnology concern
 said it will manufacture the tests and Baxter, Chicago, will
 sell them through its Pandex division.
    Cambridge BioScience said it is conducting human clinical
 trials with the test and expects it to become available in at
 least five foreign countries during the first quarter of
 1988.  The company said it also hopes to receive Food and Drug
 Administration approval to begin U. S. sales in early 1988.
    Cambridge BioScience claimed its Recombigen AIDS test is
 simpler to use than others because it doesn't require
 sophisticated equipment or refrigeration.  The company added
 that the test also may be able to detect cases of the disease
 several days sooner after infection.  Researchers believe the
 disease is detectable with existing tests within a few weeks
 of infection.
    The test, which employs genetically engineered proteins to
 detect antibodies to AIDS in a patient's blood, is being
 developed in two versions.  One takes five minutes and is
 designed to be used in doctors' offices, hospital emergency
 rooms and other applications requiring a fast diagnosis.  The
 second version takes two hours and is aimed at mass screening
 of large numbers of blood samples, the company said.
    The agreement gives another boost to Cambridge
 BioScience's AIDS research program, which draws upon the work
 of several prominent AIDS researchers at Harvard University.
 As previously reported, Cambridge BioScience in July signed
 an agreement with Institut Merieux, a French vaccine maker,
 to jointly develop an AIDS vaccine.  The company also recently
 agreed to supply Syntex Corp. 's Syva Co. unit with
 genetically engineered proteins for use in developing
 screening tests for AIDS and other diseases.

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