Quadraspec Receives USDA Product License for Canine Heartworm Test

Business Wire, March 20, 2008

Quadraspec Inc. Receives Product License from the USDA that Allows for the Sale and Distribution of the Canine Heartworm Antigen Test Kit

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Quadraspec Inc. announced Thursday (March 20) that it will launch its first licensed product, the Canine Heartworm Antigen Test Kit, after receiving a key regulatory approval earlier this year from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The Canine Heartworm Antigen Test Kit is an immunoassay designed to directly detect the presence of the heartworm antigen. Heartworms are parasitic worms that live in the right ventricle of the heart and nearby blood vessels. The parasites are transmitted from one animal to another by mosquitoes. In 2004 more than 250,000 domesticated animals contracted heartworm in the United States, with the states of Florida and Texas reporting the highest incidence, according to the American Heartworm Society.

The immunoassay test for heartworms is performed on a Quadraspec disc containing about 260 patient wells. A sample of a patient's blood is pipetted into each test well of the disc, and any antigen in the sample binds to the antibodies in the wells during the incubation period. After further preparation, the disc is interrogated by the Quadraspec Inspira Dual Channel Reader, the only detection system in the world featuring label-free detection as well as traditional fluorescence. The data is then processed to reveal if the antigen is bound in each well.

"Successful regulatory approval demonstrates both the quality of our products as well as our ability to work with regulatory agencies," said Dick Aderman, Quadraspec's president and chief operating officer. "Further, this license positions Quadraspec for a valuable partnership with Antech Diagnostics."

Antech Diagnostics is the world's largest veterinary diagnostic laboratory.

Quadraspec, a Purdue Research Park-based company, was formed in 2004 upon exclusively licensing and developing its Spinning Disc Interferometry (SDI[TM]) technology from Purdue University.

Quadraspec's scientific and engineering innovations represent important advances over existing technologies. The ability to process at previously unattainable levels of throughput and in short periods of time allows for rapid and efficient assay development.

SDI[TM] detection technology is poised to overcome the technological limitations and provide quantitative molecular assays in a label-free environment.