iCubate, Wondfo Biotech Form Chinese JV to Develop MDx Assay

iCubate said today that it has formed a joint venture with Wondfo Biotech to commercialize infectious disease molecular diagnostics in China.
 
The joint venture — called Wondfo-iCubate Biotech — will develop assays using iCubate's amplicon-rescued multiplex PCR (arm-PCR) technology, which the company has said can amplify up to a quarter of a million unique targets in one reaction with high specificity and sensitivity.
 
iCubate said that it signed a series of strategic cooperation agreements with Guangzhou-based Wondfo in late 2018 to set the stage for the establishment of Wondfo-iCubate Biotech, and that the joint venture has already secured an industrial and commercial business license to operate within China.
 
Specific terms of the joint venture deal were not disclosed.
 
In 2017, Huntsville, Alabama-based iCubate received US Food and Drug Administration clearance for an arm-PCR-based bloodstream infection assay and related diagnostic platform. The company is also currently developing a gram-negative assay that would run on a benchtop, fully integrated cartridge-based molecular diagnostic platform capable of running highly multiplexed assays.
 
In September, Wondfo Biotech agreed to establish a joint venture with Biocartis to commercialize that company's Idylla molecular diagnostics platform in China.