German and Brazilian biotechnology companies sign agreement for scientific and commercial cooperation
Decentralizaion and expansion of diagnostic services for HIV/AIDS patients as main objective of the cooperation / Agreement signed in frame of the official state visit of German Federal President Christian Wulff to Brazil.
Brasilia and Görlitz on 5 May 2011 – Today, in the frame programme of the state visit of German Federal President Christian Wulff to Brazil, the German biotech company Partec GmbH and the Brazilian company FK Biotec SA have signed a scientific and commercial cooperation agreement.
The main objective of the close cooperation is to decentralize, reduce costs and expand the access to diagnostics for HIV/AIDS patients whose immunological status must be controlled throughout their life, especially by implementing innovative solutions which are specifically adapted to the very different infrastructural conditions in the country. Around 800.000 Brazilian citizens are infected with HIV and 200.000 of them are receiving antiretroviral therapy. Through the intended wider and even more patientorientated
availability of the required diagnostics, control within treatment programmes can be further improved, thus leading to reduction of morbidity and minimized risk for resistancies. Additionally, the envisaged cooperation will focus on developing and implementing new technologies for the diagnosis of tuberculosis and malaria in Brazil.
The agreement was signed in frame of the official state visit of the German Federal President Wulff to Brazil by Professor Fernando Kreutz, founder and managing director of FK Biotec SA and President of the Brazilian Biotechnology Association BrBIOTEC and Mr. Roland Goehde, co-founder and managing director of Partec GmbH and Chairman of the Board of Directors of „biosaxony“, the Biotechnology Association of the Free State of Saxony, Germany.
About Partec:
The German biotechnology company Partec as inventor of the flow cytometry technology is offering automated cell analysis systems, which are distinguished by their performance, precision and cost-effectiveness. Flow cytometry has become an indispensable key technology in the fields of immunology – especially in HIV/AIDS, leukemia and lymphoma -, in cancer diagnostics and research, microbiology, industrial applications – e.g. in food and pharmaceutical industries -, and in plant breeding, agricultural and aquacultural research. The company is the global market leader in the field of HIV/AIDS immune status diagnostics. Partec also offers solutions for molecular and cellular diagnostics, DNA analysis, fluorescent and transmitted light microscopy. With more than 60 national and international patents, Partec has marked itself out as a technology leader. Partec has been granted with the Innovation Award of the Free State of Saxony in 2003 and 2007, received the IQ Innovation Award Central Germany in 2007 and has been awarded as selected landmark from the initiative “Germany – Land of Ideas” 2009.
About FK Biotec:
FK Biotec was founded in 1999 and is active in research, development and innovation on human immunodiagnosis and autologous anticancer vaccine. FK Biotec has great experience in technological process development with a highly qualified multisdisciplinary team. FK Biotec is considered a mark for the brasilian biotech industry, since it has been the first biotech national company to receive risk capital. It has developed a networking with several well known research institutes and recently was rewarded with the 'Innovative Company' label by ANPEI, in 2009. This label recognizes and identifies cutting-edge companies that really have influence in research and innovation in Brazil.