Applied Bio, HTS and Mitsubishi collaborate.

US firms Applied Biosystems (which is an Applera Corporation business), HTS Biosystems and Japan's Mitsubishi Chemical Corp have announced a distribution agreement in which Applied Biosystems Japan will be the exclusive distributor of a next-generation surface plasmon resonance system designed to help researchers profile and characterize biomolecular interactions.

In addition, the three companies are expected to collaborate to further develop applications to expand the system's capabilities.

Applied Biosystems plans for worldwide commercial release of the system by the middle of calendar 2003. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.