30 June 2009: On June 30 2009, NorDiag signed a collaboration agreement with Genetic Testing Institute Inc. (GTI) of Waukesha, WI, USA for development of an assay for the diagnosis of tuberculosis.  GTI has extensive experience in the development of immunoassays and diagnostics.

The assay is based on proprietary technology developed by Bionom, a technology company in Oblensk, Russia. NorDiag holds an exclusive license for certain antigens developed by Bionom for the commercial development of diagnostics. The objective of this collaboration agreement is to develop a low cost assay which can potentially be utilized in countries which have a high incidence of tuberculosis infections or countries that need a low cost assay for screening. The project receives funding from the Research Council of Norway through their BIA program.

"Tuberculosis is becoming a large problem in today's healthcare. There is a current and urgent need for a rapid low cost test with improved sensitivity and specificity - the market potential for such a test is estimated to be 130 million tests per annum. It is a milestone for our tuberculosis project that we have taken the step to develop the assay. However, it is still an early phase development and a clinical validation will need to be carried through once the assay development is completed. We are also working on the development of an assay for borelia based on the same technology which has the potential to be more sensitive and specific than the assays which are currently available", says Mårten Wigstøl, CEO in NorDiag.

Contact:
CEO Mårten Wigstøl, phone +47 911 65775

About NorDiag:
NorDiag is a biotechnology company developing, manufacturing and marketing automated solutions, instruments and tests, for use in diagnostic of infectious diseases and cancer. The Company`s core competence is isolation of bacterial and human DNA from difficult clinical samples, and the Company has established a solid market share in the Scandinavian market for sexually transmitted infections. The company has similar applications for Tuberculosis, MRSA and DNA from stool. Applications for respiratory pathogens and viruses are under development. NorDiag was founded in 2003 and has its headquarters in Oslo - Norway. The Company has offices and laboratories in Stockholm - Sweden and West Chester (PA) - USA. The group has 31 man years. NorDiag is listed on Oslo Stock Exchange with the ticker NORD. For further information - www.nordiag.com

Read the notice in Norwegian here