Cellestis (CST)

Shares / Stock Code

CST

Stock Exchange / Sharemarket

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Cellestis Limited (CST) is a company engaged in the development, manufacturing as well as marketing of different medical diagnostic products and scientific research. It is also engaged in the commercialisation and development of the technology products of QuantiFERON for scientific research and medical diagnosis in the world. It has main and principal operations in the US, Europe and Australia. CST was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange on the 24th of April, 2001. Its average annual revenue reaches approximately AUD$10 million. Its headquarters is located in Victoria, Australia and to date; around 40 people are employed in the company. CST is in the "Health Care" sector, "Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology & Life Sciences" industry group and specifically the "Life Sciences Tools & Services" industry.

QuantiFERON technology is the CST's patented whole blood method used to detect the cell mediated immune responses with the use of whole blood samples. This technology owned by Cellestis is perfect for research and vaccine development in small and large degree of clinical testing. It may be applied to a wide variety of human conditions that include infectious disease. It may also be applied in the monitoring of immune response to cancer, vaccination and other autoimmune diseases. The quantiFERON technology is a method for detecting cell-mediated immune responses using whole blood samples.

There are two products under the QuantiFERON technology that are being manufactured and marketed by Cellestis (CST) and these are QuantiFERON-TB and QuantiFERON-CMI. QuantiFERON-TB is an FDA approved test which is now for sale in the US while the QuantiFERON-TB Gold is an in-vitro diagnostic test that helps in detecting Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. The other products that use the QuantiFERON technology are still being developed.

Cellestis (CST) Company History

Cellestis was founded in the late 2000. It was established to research, market and develop QuantiFERON technology products. This product is for scientific research and medical diagnosis. The company joined Australian Stock Exchange in 2001. Statens Serum Institute and Cellestis made a contract in 2002 giving exclusive rights to Cellestis. These rights were to use the developed tuberculosis specific proteins by SSI for its QuantiFERON technology. QuantiFERON – TB Gold, latest generation tuberculosis test was known in 2003. In December 2003, FDA gave permit to the company to market the test in US. Experiments were also being administered in Japan, India, Europe and South Africa.

The company made a contract with Statens Se-rum Institute to distribute the new TB kit in Polish, Nordic and Baltic in 2004. Nichirei Biosciences recommended Cellestis that the QuantiFERON-TB Gold products had been permitted to be sold in Japan by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. It also signed a contract to supply QFT-Gold In-Tube with Aeras Global TB Foundation.

In March 2006, diagnostic system of QuantiFERON was licensed to be used by the Cooperative Research Centre for Vaccine technology (CRV-VT). Diagnostic product QuantiFERON TB Gold In Tube for tuberculosis was permitted to be sold in Canada for it had obtained a medical device license. This endeavor was due to the advice given by the Therapeutic Products Directorate of Health Canada.

In June 2007, it developed an online service, informing parties that QFT test is available in their locality. It also operated in Europe, USA and all the countries. QFT is the sole blood test in finding out the infections of tuberculosis.