OREANDA-NEWS. Fujitsu Limited announced that Fujitsu Laboratories Limited, its wholly owned subsidiary, has decided to spin off its long-cultivated aptamer technology so that external resources can be employed to foster its commercialization. To this end, UK-based Anglo Scientific Ltd., a specialist in establishing venture businesses in collaboration with researchers from academia or public sector institutions as well as private sector scientists, has set up Apta Biosciences Ltd. (ABS). This new company will pursue the commercialization of the aptamer technology in diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Fujitsu Limited will invest in ABS through the corporate venture capital fund it established in 2010.

Seeking to develop a novel technology that brings together the disciplines of nanotechnology and biotechnology, Fujitsu Laboratories has been conducting R&D on aptamers since 2003. In 2010, it received support from Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) to conduct joint research with the Experimental Therapeutics Centre, the National University of Singapore, the Cancer Science Institute and the National University Hospital. It then made progress in verifying the effectiveness of its aptamer technology by developing a biomarker for prostate cancer and an aptamer for the West Nile virus. Rather than continue in-house R&D on aptamer technology, however, Fujitsu Laboratories determined that R&D would progress more effectively and at a faster pace if external resources were leveraged. This is the reason it decided to spin off this technology.

Using Fujitsu-developed aptamer technology, ABS will develop and offer aptamers with strong affinities and special characteristics to companies and research institutes seeking to apply aptamer technology to the development of diagnostic agents and therapeutic medicines. The development and manufacturing of aptamers will be conducted by ABS's wholly owned subsidiary in Singapore, Adaptamer Solutions Pte. Ltd.