BioSystems International (BSI), of Evry, France, announced a collaborative agreement with AstraZeneca for a biomarker discovery program in osteoarthritis. BSI will conduct the program with clinical samples and funding from AstraZeneca, and will retain the rights and revenue from diagnostics applications. BSI will provide AstraZeneca with detection kits or reagents for use in AstraZeneca's internal research and development programs, and AstraZeneca will receive exclusive rights to any new targets as well as worldwide rights to the results of the collaborative biomarker program in promotional and regulatory material or the product label for a therapeutic compound.

Earlier in 2006, BSI announced a pilot collaborative agreement with Euroscreen SA of Brussels, Belgium, for a biomarker discovery program in chronic inflammatory disease. BSI will conduct clinical sample collection and biomarker discovery using its proprietary technology platform with funding from Euroscreen. BSI will retain the rights and revenue from any diagnostic applications developed through the collaboration, and Euroscreen has the right to test the new biomarkers through its research and G protein-coupled receptor drug development programs.

BSI is affiliated with the Barnett Institute at Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, and the University of Debrecen (UD) Medical and Health Science Center, Hungary.

— A. Techman