Gen-Probe and 3M care for Food Safety

"This collaboration will allow 3M to provide food processors with a broader range of products that complement the widely used 3M(TM) Petrifilm(TM) Plate product line and the recently acquired Biotrace International products," said Chuck Kummeth, division vice president, 3M Medical Division.

"This agreement is another important milestone in our strategy to enter attractive new growth markets with our proprietary NAT technologies," said Hank Nordhoff, Gen-Probe's chairman, president and chief executive officer. "We are delighted to work with 3M, a world leader in food testing, to commercialize innovative assays that we believe will detect microbial contamination in food more rapidly and accurately than traditional methods."

Under the terms of the collaboration, 3M is responsible for developing sample processing methods that will be used with Gen-Probe's NATs. 3M also is responsible for obtaining the necessary regulatory licenses and approvals to commercialize the products, and for selling and marketing them worldwide. Gen-Probe is responsible for assay development and manufacturing. 3M has agreed to make milestone payments to Gen-Probe based on technical progress, and to help fund assay development.

Gen-Probe and 3M are recognized innovators in their respective fields. For example, both companies have received the National Medal of Technology, the nation's highest honor for technological innovation. The medal is awarded to individuals and companies who "embody the spirit of American innovation and who have advanced the nation's global competitiveness."

3M's customers include most of the 100 largest food companies in the world. Gen-Probe's NATs are used to screen more than 80 percent of the U.S. blood supply for HIV-1, hepatitis C virus and West Nile virus, and to diagnose more than half of the two most common bacterial sexually transmitted diseases.

By Gen-Probe