ProAxsis Limited (www.proaxsis.com) is delighted to announce that it has secured a second licensing agreement with the Queen’s University of Belfast for exclusive intellectual property rights for its ProteaseTag® technology. This technology enables the measurement of active protease biomarkers of disease. Following its spin out from Queen’s in 2013, the two parties agreed an initial licence for the first generation of ProteaseTags®, enabling ProAxsis to commercialise its first product. This laboratory-based immunoassay for the measurement of neutrophil elastase as a biomarker of lung infection and inflammation in chronic respiratory diseases was successfully registered with a CE Mark in September 2016.

Commenting on the news, Dr. David Ribeiro, CEO of ProAxsis, said: “Despite now being based in a new purpose-built laboratory at Catalyst Inc., we continue to maintain strong links with Queen’s, and we’re very pleased to have signed this licensing agreement. These modified ProteaseTags® are more suited to some of our ongoing protease biomarker targets and the company looks forward to launching further immunoassays and point-of-care tests in the near future.”

Mr Brian McCaul, Director of Innovation at Queen’s and CEO of QUBIS Ltd commented: “ProAxsis remains strongly poised to transform point-of-care diagnostics for chronic diseases. We are pleased to continue to support one of our own spin out companies by licensing out a new innovative technology which will enhance their current product offering.”

The technology behind the ProAxsis ProteaseTag® was initially developed in the School of Pharmacy at Queen’s, by a team led by Dr. Lorraine Martin and Prof. Brian Walker. Further information on research at Queen’s can be found at www.qub.ac.uk/research.

Queries regarding ProAxsis’ Immunoassay for measuring active neutrophil elastase, or any requests for support with measuring other active protease biomarkers using its proprietary ProteaseTag® technology, can be directed to info@proaxsis.com.