Roche Diagnostics Licenses Melting Curve Analysis Technique to Agilent

Roche Diagnostics and Agilent Technologies announced today they have entered into a non-exclusive licensing agreement for use of Roche’s melting curve analysis technology. Under the terms of the agreement, Agilent will obtain from Roche a non-exclusive license to use, develop and sell products based on melting curve analysis. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

“The licensing of the melting curve analysis technique to Agilent is one more contribution of Roche to further boost development of this technology in the life science field,” states Manfred Baier, Head of Roche Applied Science, a business area of Roche Diagnostics.

“We are pleased to be working with Roche and look forward to offering this technology as part of our growing life sciences portfolio,” said Bill Molnar, vice president and general manager of Agilent’s Bioreagents Division.

The melting curve analysis is a technique for analysis of PCR products. After PCR, the resulting PCR product is slowly heated. Each double-stranded DNA has its own specific melting temperature, which is defined as the temperature at which 50 percent of the DNA becomes single stranded. By measurement of the melting temperature, the DNA can be easily identified.