Vienna-based biotechnology company, Apeiron Biologics AG (Apeiron) has announced the establishment of a subsidiary that will globally commercialize the peptide analytics service, RAS-Fingerprint which has been developed by Apeiron and already marketed successfully. Attoquant Diagnostics GmbH (Attoquant) has been founded specifically for that purpose and will also be responsible for further development of the technology platform as well as the extension of the product range.

Attoquant offers a globally unique technology to measure and quantify all peptides of the renin angiotensin system (RAS) from blood and various tissues with extraordinary sensitivity. These peptides play a key role e.g. for the regulation of blood pressure, water balance as well as acute and chronic inflammation. The simultaneous and precise analytical assessment of the entirety of these peptides is worldwide unique and was termed RAS-Fingerprint. This novel technology may be used for a more targeted application of drugs that lower high blood pressure or to newly develop such medications by rational design. Moreover, the RAS-Fingerprint allows for a better understanding of prevention and treatment of cardiovascular and renal diseases and has great potential as a diagnostic and therapeutic biomarker in general. Attoquant is also working on extensions of the methodology and is offering client-specific analytics.

Hans Loibner, CEO of Apeiron: "We are very pleased to provide to a young and entrepreneurial team the opportunity to start up another outstanding biotech company in Austria, based on a promising new technology. This technology was developed as part of pharmacologic assays within the project APN01 that was successfully out-licensed to GlaxoSmithKline in 2010. It has manifold possible applications in preclinical and particularly in clinical R&D."

Marko Poglitsch, CEO of Attoquant: "After the first successfully established customer relations, Attoquant is glad to give valuable input into the further development of diagnostics and therapy of various cardiovascular diseases. While we presumed that our technology will be a useful tool in particular for drug development and personalized medicine, we were surprised by the extent of positive feedback from the scientific community. Now, our mission is to make the RAS-Fingerprint broadly available for basic research and clinical studies and to further develop it for its use in routine diagnostics. In view of these tasks, we have very exciting months and years ahead."