Epredia And Lunaphore Announce Commercial Agreement For Exclusive Distribution Of LabSat® Research

Portsmouth, NH and Lausanne, Switzerland /PRNewswire/ - Epredia, a global leader in precision cancer diagnostics and tissue diagnostics, and Lunaphore Technologies SA, a Swiss life-sciences company developing innovative next-generation equipment for cancer research, have announced today that they have entered into a distribution agreement. This follows the announcement of a strategic investment in Lunaphore by PHC Holdings Corporation, the parent company of Epredia, which was announced on February 6, 2020.

Under the terms of this agreement, Epredia have been appointed the exclusive distributor of the LabSat® Research platform in the US, UK and Germany, where Epredia will start to distribute the product in July 2020, as well as Japan, where commercialization will begin in 2021. In these countries, Epredia will also provide service for the Lunaphore instruments.

The LabSat® Research platform is an ultra-fast automated tissue staining instrument for rapid immunohistochemistry (IHC) and immunofluorescence (IF). It utilizes Fast Fluidic Exchange microfluidic technology for rapid and uniform delivery of reagents to tissue samples. This enables accurate staining with improved protocol turnaround time.

The LabSat® Research platform will be available for research use only in the US, UK, Germany and Japan and offers a fully open system, providing fast, flexible, reproducible and standardized IHC and IF staining for research laboratories. This platform also has proven potential for rapid multiplex IHC/IF.

"Lunaphore is one of the most exciting players in tissue staining instruments and we believe that their technology has the potential to help revolutionize tissue analytics" said Sandra Cummings, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Epredia. "Their LabSat® Research platform ideally complements our existing instruments and enables us to offer customers a more complete portfolio of immunohistochemistry staining solutions for research. We are excited to be able to bring this technology to researchers to support our mission to improve the lives of patients by enhancing precision cancer diagnostics."

Lunaphore's platform complements Epredia's LabVision IHC portfolio to offer a complete line of precise, agile and flexible IHC solutions for research laboratories. LabVision IHC instruments and consumables are recognized for enabling standardized high throughput IHC staining and will be offered alongside Lunaphore's solutions that offer flexible solutions for rapid IHC staining.

LabVision Autostainers and PT Modules are open IHC platforms that have been optimized with LabVision UltraVision detection kits and primary antibodies. These high throughput instruments are capable of staining between 36 and 84 slides in approximately 3 hours and utilizing between 300 and 600 microliters per slide.

"This commercial partnership with Epredia is an exciting next step for Lunaphore, as it will expand our reach to key markets across the world, especially into the US" said Ata Tuna Ciftlik, Lunaphore's CEO. "By using Epredia's global footprint and experience in the field, we will be able to empower more researchers with our technology and help them develop highly sophisticated next-generation tissue analytics tests."

One of the core elements of Lunaphore's systems are proprietary staining microfluidic chips which create a closed chamber that deliver reagents to tissue samples in a homogenous and instantaneous way. Lunaphore's products aim to enable sophisticated assays while sharply reducing turnaround times. Thanks to precision fluidics, regular frozen sections can be stained with standard IHC reagents in 12-18 minutes, and FFPE sections can be stained with standard IHC reagents in 20-30 minutes, with high quality results. LabSat® can also perform TSA-based IF multiplexing, obtaining a 6-plex in just over 4 hours.

These short incubation times improve workflow, limit the exposure of the tissue to the reagents and prevent degradation of samples, which is particularly important in research when performing multiplex applications with multiple staining cycles. LabSat® enables high precision liquid handling in an open and versatile manner, in a small footprint instrument for research applications, without the investment requirements of large workflow automation systems.

For further information on Epredia and its products, please visit www.epredia.com

For further information on Lunaphore and its products, please visit www.lunaphore.com.