Horizon Discovery™ (Horizon), a leading provider of research tools to support translational genomics and the development of personalized medicines, today announced it has signed a worldwide distribution agreement with Haplogen GmbH (Haplogen), with immediate effect. Under the terms of the agreement customers can now access, directly from Horizon, Haplogen’s Haploid Gene Trap Mutant Collection of isogenic human cell lines deficient for the expression of single genes. This agreement represents the first time that Horizon will be distributing another company’s products, recognizing Horizon’s past success in penetrating the global model cell lines market.
Haploid cellular models offer a biologically relevant system for in vitro genetic analyses of molecular, cellular, and developmental events in various cell lineages. Haplogen’s Haploid Gene Trap Mutant Collection is the largest haploid cell line bank available, and comprises over 9,400 mutant clones, affecting over 3,700 human genes and an additional 1,600 inducible clones covering 1,100 genes. For-profit customers will be able to access the cell-line bank by signing an annual limited use label license, whilst academic customers will be able to access an unlimited term license and will receive a greater than 90% discount.
“Horizon’s mission is to give scientists access to high value products and services that address their research needs,” commented Dr Darrin Disley, CEO, Horizon. “The addition of the Haplogen cell line products to our offering supports our growth strategy and is highly complementary to our current product portfolio, including our X-MAN™ range of diploid isogenic cell lines. We anticipate announcing further partnerships in the future as we continue to broaden our product offering to meet the needs of our customers.”
Dr Georg Casari, CEO, Haplogen, said: “We are delighted that a company of Horizon’s reputation and commercial reach is recognizing the potential of our Haploid Gene Trap Mutant Collection. This marketing and distribution agreement will help make our products accessible to a much broader range of customers active in the translational genomics field.”
About Horizon Discovery
www.horizondiscovery.com
Horizon Discovery Limited (Horizon) is a leading provider of research tools to support translational genomics research and the development of personalized medicines. Using GENESIS™, Horizon is able to alter almost any endogenous gene sequence of a human or mammalian cell-line quickly, reliably and without introducing unwanted and confounding genotypes and/or phenotypes.
Horizon has applied GENESIS™ to create over 500 X-MAN™ cell lines, the world’s first source of genetically-defined and patient-relevant human cell lines, accurately modeling the disease- causing mutations found in cancer patients. These ‘patients-in-a-test-tube’ are being used by academic and industry leaders to identify the effect of individual or compound genetic mutations on drug activity, patient responsiveness, and resistance, which may lead to the successful prediction of which patient sub-groups will respond to currently-available and future drug treatments. This enables the design of shorter, more focused, and less expensive clinical trials, ultimately providing the tools to identify the ‘right drugs’ for the ‘right patients’ based upon the unique genetic mutations that define their disease. In addition to the X-MAN™ cell lines, Horizon provides GENESIS™, GENASSISTTM and X- MAN™ derived products and services, with industrial application in: bio-pharmaceutical process optimization; clinical diagnostic development; drug discovery & development; and the provision of reference standards for genomic-based clinical research platforms.
About Haplogen
www.haplogen.com
Haplogen is a privately held biotechnology company in Vienna, Austria, with drug discovery programs to combat viral infectious diseases. Haplogen employs a functional genomics platform based on haploid genetics in human cell lines. Haplogen is constructing next generation haploid genetics tools for internal target discovery programs and as part of a commitment to support experimental human genetics in the wider scientific community. In addition, Haplogen offers partnerships to perform haploid genetic screens for drug target discovery and to elucidate drug mechanism of action.
Haplogen was founded in 2010 as a spin-out of CeMM, the Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.