Last month it was announced that Mayo Medical Laboratories entered into a pathology testing agreement with a Chinese medical laboratory.  Earlier this year both UCLA and UPMC announced telepathology initiatives with China.  Now comes word that Leica has entered into collaborative efforts for joint sales, research and development with a Chinese company:

Beijing, China / Wetzlar, Germany. China Medical Technologies, Inc. (CMED) (Nasdaq: CMED), a leading China-based advanced in-vitro diagnostic (“IVD”) company, and Leica Biosystems, a division of Leica Microsystems, a world leader in microscopes and scientific instruments, today announced that they have established a sales, research and development collaboration to co-develop and market automated FISH kits to be used on the Leica BOND system. CMED will sell the Automated FISH Kits in China and Leica will have an option to sell the FISH kits in the rest of the world.

 Under the collaboration, CMED and Leica Microsystems will jointly develop automated FISH solutions for tissue sample tests on HER-2, EGFR and TOP2A on the Leica BOND system, an automated advanced staining platform. HER-2, EGFR and TOP2A are genes in connection with the targeted cancer therapy drugs for breast cancer, lung cancer and stomach cancer patients. Automation of these FISH tests on the Leica BOND system will enable pathology laboratories and independent service laboratories to run these diagnostic tests more efficiently and with higher and more consistent quality. The automation of FISH tests will also help users to reduce the work load pressure created by increasing test volumes. Both parties agreed to add further FISH applications into the collaboration during the term, including for cytology and pre-natal applications.

“These collaborations with Leica mark a significant milestone for us,” commented Mr. Xiaodong Wu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of CMED. “We believe that FISH applications will be more widely used in various clinical applications on automated basis in the future. By partnering with Leica, one of the leading global players anatomic pathology, we can provide more efficient and higher quality FISH diagnostic solutions to the end users not only in China, but also in the global markets through Leica’s extensive global network.”

“CMED is the market leader for FISH based diagnostics in China and has played a key role in the rapid development in the use of FISH in China, especially for tissue based companion diagnostic testing. This partnership will help Leica and CMED to offer customers in China a broad test menu of high quality FISH tests automated on the Leica BOND system,” commented Arnd Kaldowski, President of Leica Biosystems.

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Leica Microsystems is a world leader in microscopes and scientific instruments. Founded as a family business in the nineteenth century, the company’s history was marked by unparalleled innovation on its way to becoming a global enterprise. Its historically close cooperation with the scientific community is the key to Leica Microsystems’ tradition of innovation, which draws on users’ ideas and creates solutions tailored to their requirements. At the global level, Leica Microsystems is organized in four divisions, all of which are among the leaders in their respective fields: the Life Science Division, Industry Division, Biosystems Division and Medical Division.

Leica Microsystems’ Biosystems Division, also known as Leica Biosystems, offers histopathology laboratories the most extensive product range with appropriate products for each work step in histology and for a high level of productivity in the working processes of the entire laboratory.

The company is represented in over 100 countries with 12 manufacturing facilities in 7 countries, sales and service organizations in 19 countries and an international network of dealers. The company is headquartered in Wetzlar, Germany.

China Medical Technologies, Inc. is a leading China-based advanced IVD company using molecular diagnostic technologies including Fluorescent in situ Hybridization (FISH) and Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) and an immunodiagnostic technology, Enhanced Chemiluminescence Immunoassay (ECLIA), to develop, manufacture and distribute diagnostic products used for the detection of various cancers, diseases and disorders as well as companion diagnostic tests for targeted cancer drugs. The Company generates all of its revenues in China through the sale of diagnostic consumables including FISH probes, SPR-based DNA chips and ECLIA reagent kits to hospitals which are recurring users of the consumables for their patients. The Company sells FISH probes and SPR chips to large hospitals through its direct sales force and ECLIA reagent kits to small and mid-size hospitals through distributors. For more information, please visit http://www.chinameditech.com.