This deal is reminiscent of one struck late last year with Eli Lilly and Co., in which VisEn is expanding the capabilities and accelerating the adoption of its in vivo fluorescence technologies for Lilly's research and development programs.
"Our goal in all that we do is to have products that seamlessly bridge preclinical and clinical activity," says Kirtland G. Poss, president and CEO of VisEn. "The key to really effectively using knowledge of biological activity is to have a data continuum from cells to animals to people. That continuum is what enables better understanding of disease processes and better decisions in preclinical work, trials and treatment. And that's why we continue to work to get our products into the clinical space. We need standards that can become FDA-regulatable."
One key way VisEn is doing that right now is with deals like the Merck and Lilly ones, Poss says, as they allow his company to build on preclinical work already being performed with such companies. He says he expects VisEn's first fluorescence imaging agent to be in the clinics by 2008, which Poss says will be "an important point in our evolution of the use of these agents in drug development programs."
