Tm Bio deak wuthg Sanbio on ID-Tag

Canada's Tm Bioscience Corp, a player in the commercial genetic testing market, has signed a distribution agreement with Dutch firm Sanbio to commercialize the ID-Tag Respiratory Viral Panel from Tm in the Netherlands. The ID-Tag RVP detects and discriminates between 20 respiratory viruses including avian flu and severe acute resiratory syndrome.

"Signing our first European distribution agreement for our ID-Tag RVP is an important milestone in our global commercialization strategy for this product," said Mr Greg Hines, chief executive of Tm. He added: "we intend to complete a series of distribution agreements across Europe over the coming months to be well-positioned for the rapid commercialization of this test upon gaining European regulatory clearance, which we anticipate will be achieved in 2006."