Compugen Ltd. has entered into an agreement with Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, Inc., a Johnson & Johnson company, for the development and commercialization of immunoassay diagnostic markers.

Under the agreement, Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics and Compugen will jointly develop diagnostic products based on biomarkers discovered by Compugen. Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics will have worldwide rights for commercialization, with Compugen receiving development milestones and royalties.

During the initial phase of the agreement, Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics will have the right to select up to nine biomarkers for development from Compugen's continuously growing portfolio, with the parties then collaborating on the initial clinical validation of the selected biomarkers. Under the agreement, successfully validated biomarkers will be developed into products and commercialized by Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, with Compugen receiving milestone payments and license fees for each commercialized biomarker, in addition to revenue-based royalties, according to the company release.

The collaboration combines Compugen's unique discovery capability and existing candidate portfolio with Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics' global development and commercialization strengths. Compugen's discovery process relies on the comprehensive predictive analysis of the human proteome provided by the company's LEADS platform. The results of this analysis are utilized with a variety of discovery engines, each designed to identify novel proteins with specific desired characteristics from the vast number predicted by the discovery process, the release added.