Epitope and STC to Collaborate on Diagnostic Technology

Epitope, Inc. and STC Technologies, Inc. recently signed a definitive merger agreement under which the two companies will enter the oral fluid and point-of-care medical diagnostics industry.

The combined company will be renamed OraSure Technologies, Inc., will be incorporated under Delaware law, and will be headquartered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Together, Epitope and STC will utilize their expertise in oral fluid technology, infectious disease testing and substance abuse testing. Epitope's OraQuick rapid assay platform and STC's Up-Converting Phosphor Technology (UPT), which are under development for a broad range of medical diagnostic applications, will provide a substantial product supply for the combined company.

UPT is a proprietary label detection technology being developed by STC. This enabling technology utilizes submicron phosphor particles that convert infrared light to visible light. When used in conjunction with antibodies or DNA as a probe label, UPT assays produce no background signal, which dramatically increases the sensitivity of the test system.

Edited by John Griffiths