Hypoxyprobe, Inc. is a small company dedicated to providing tools for the diagnosis and treatment of malignant and normal
tissue diseases in which oxygen regulation is disturbed. The company is located at 121 Middlesex Turnpike, Burlington, Massachusetts, USA 01803 and is a spin-off of the Hypoxyprobe Division of Natural Pharmacia International, Inc. (NPI).
Hypoxyprobe, Inc. arose from a collaboration between Dr. James Raleigh in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and NPI which at the time was located in the Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.
The collaboration between UNC Chapel Hill and NPI at first focused on clinical studies of tumor hypoxia. NPI manufactured pimonidazole HCl on a large scale and Dr. Raleigh provided patented antibody reagents for detecting the binding of pimonidazole to hypoxic cells in human tumors.
Preclinical studies in dogs, rats and mice generated a growing interest among the scientific community in pimonidazole HCl as a hypoxia marker in general and in 2002 NPI issued a five-year exclusive license to Chemicon International to market a limited line of Hypoxyprobe reagents for animal use. In 2006, anticipating a need for an expanded line of Hypoxyprobe reagents, NPI ended Chemicon’s license and established Hypoxyprobe, Inc. to develop an enhanced line of reagents for both animal and clinical studies.
The Company is now focused on developing non-invasive hypoxia markers and hypoxia dependent cytotoxins based on the pimonidazole core structure.