Bayer in Licensing Agreement for Heart Test

(Osaka, Japan) for the development, manufacture, and distribution of an automated test for B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), as an aid in the diagnosis and management of congestive heart failure (CHF). Bayer plans to develop the test for use on its automated Advia Centaur and ASC:180 immunoassay systems, which will improve the availability of BNP to laboratories and their customers.

In a separate agreement, Bayer has agreed to distribute Shionogi's BNP radioimmunoassay kit (Shionoria BNP) in Canada and the United States on a research-use-only basis. Shionogi has marketed the kit in Europe since 1997 as a diagnostic blood test and its use has been cited in many cardiology journals as an aid in the diagnosis and management of patients with CHF. As a result of this large clinical database, the BNP kit has become the gold standard for measurement of BNP, says Bayer Diagnostics.

BNP is a 32-amino acid hormone secreted into the bloodstream by the heart in response to CHF. The initial diagnosis of CHF is problematic for a primary care doctor, requiring the use of ultrasound and radiographic procedures since many of the same symptoms can easily be associated with other pathologies. A simple biochemical blood test, especially one that is plasma based, could have value both to rule in or rule out CHF.




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