Akonni Biosystems Inc. and Chinese in vitro diagnostics company, Righton, recently announced a commercial agreement that enables Righton to sell Akonni's products for nucleic acid purification and molecular diagnostics to researchers, clinical laboratories, and hospitals in China.

The products to be sold include TruTip, Akonni's best-in-class sample preparation technology, which is low-cost and simple, yet highly effective at purifying DNA and RNA from the most difficult sample types. In addition, for diagnostic applications, Righton plans to commercialize Akonni's TruDiagnosis system based on the proprietary TruArray multiplexed diagnostic solutions.

Righton has made an equity investment of $7.5 million in Akonni's series D fundraising round bringing the total investments in the Series D round to $13.9 million. The two-way license agreement also grants Akonni exclusive rights to Righton's extensive molecular diagnostic product portfolio outside of China.

In addition to supporting Righton's core Oncology business, Righton will support the China launch of Akonni's highly anticipated Tuberculosis (TB) diagnostic product lines. Akonni has invested heavily in its TB and MDR-TB diagnostic tests and is a major player in this market through grants from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and National Institutes of Health (NIH), and collaborations with TB experts at Harvard University, the University of California San Diego (UCSD), and Johns Hopkins University.