May 18 2009
The specialist oligonucleotide reagent manufacturer, Link Technologies Limited, is pleased to announce the commercialisation and launch of TC RNA Monomers under exclusive license with Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A). Under the terms of the agreement Link will manufacture and sell the four RNA monomer phosphoramidite reagents for use in research. No financial details of the agreement have been disclosed.
The reagents are being launched at TIDEs (Las Vegas) on May 18, where Dr Douglas Dellinger, Principal Investigator at Agilent Technologies, will present a technology workshop entitled “The Development of a Cost-Effective Large Scale Synthesis Process for RNA Therapeutics”. These monomers offer significant advantages over existing RNA chemistry including lower cost amidites, reduced synthesis cycle times, high-percentage full-length product and a simple one-step base cleavage and deprotection procedure affording fast and economical post-synthesis handling.
“Agilent is committed to enabling cost-effective manufacturing of siRNA therapeutics at commercial-scale.” said James Powell, general manager of Agilent's Nucleic Acid Solutions Division. “This exclusive distribution agreement with Link Technologies for research-scale quantities of our innovative TC protection chemistry monomers is the first step towards that goal.”
Dr John Bremner, Business Development Director at Link Technologies, concurs: “This launch represents a significant advancement in the availability of improved RNA products. As a company we strongly believe in putting cutting-edge products in the hands of our customers quickly and affordably. Working in partnership with companies such as Agilent is crucial to delivering this strategy.”
Managing Director of Link Technologies, Dr Mike Gray also added: "This agreement heralds an important milestone for Link Technologies. Successfully delivering Agilent’s innovative chemistry to the research market at an early stage underlines our capability in this field, thus enabling widespread early adoption and application of the new technology”.