Empresas y finanzas

GE Healthcare Grants License for Biomagnetic Isolation of Nucleic Acids to NorDiag ASA



    GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric (NYSE:GE), announced
    today that it has completed a license agreement with NorDiag ASA,
    (OSE:NORD) granting NorDiag ASA access to GE Healthcare patents for
    the biomagnetic isolation of nucleic acids. The license, which is
    valid for the lifetime of the patents, grants NorDiag ASA certain
    rights with respect to the isolation and purification of nucleic acids
    using GE Healthcare's proprietary magnetic separation technology.

    GE Healthcare's patented methods for magnetic separation offer
    significant advantages over conventional techniques for the isolation
    and purification of biomolecules such as DNA and RNA from laboratory
    and clinical samples. In particular, the proprietary protocols will
    allow diagnosis from smaller-volume patient samples because they
    increase the yield of nucleic acid from disease-causing pathogens
    isolated from patient samples.

    "This license recognizes the considerable value that our
    biomagnetic isolation technology can bring to the diagnosis of
    infectious diseases," said Eric Roman, General Manager, Genomic
    Sciences, GE Healthcare. "We are pleased to grant NorDiag ASA access
    to our patents in this area, which will allow them to commercialise
    products that can isolate nucleic acids from difficult clinical
    samples."

    "The license from GE Healthcare is important for us since it
    enables us to widen our portfolio of products for clinical
    diagnostics," said Marten Wigst0l, CEO, NorDiag. "It also shows
    shareholders that we have the capability to bring in external
    technologies from large players such as GE Healthcare to strengthen
    our technology base."

    GE Healthcare has an active program to grant licenses for access
    to its patents for biomagnetic isolation. Financial terms were not
    disclosed.

    About GE Healthcare

    GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and
    services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our expertise in
    medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics,
    patient monitoring systems, performance improvement, drug discovery,
    and biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies is helping clinicians
    around the world re-imagine new ways to predict, diagnose, inform,
    treat and monitor disease, so patients can live their lives to the
    fullest.

    GE Healthcare's broad range of products and services enable
    healthcare providers to better diagnose and treat cancer, heart
    disease, neurological diseases and other conditions earlier. Our
    vision for the future is to enable a new "early health" model of care
    focused on earlier diagnosis, pre-symptomatic disease detection and
    disease prevention. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare
    is a $17 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE).
    Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 46,000 people committed to
    serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100
    countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website
    at www.gehealthcare.com.

    About NorDiag ASA:

    NorDiag is a biotechnology company with focus on gene based
    diagnostics in the fields of cancer and infectious diseases. The
    company's first product in cancer diagnosis is Genefec TM for
    diagnosis of colorectal cancer. The company has other applications for
    diagnosis of cancer under development, among others a screening
    product for colorectal cancer. In addition the company has a product
    for automated sample preparation of sexually transmitted diseases, as
    well as applications for other infectious diseases in the product
    pipeline