Food group Nestle has taken a further step into the medicine business by signing a research collaboration agreement with a Swiss biotech company to develop an Alzheimer's disease diagnostic test.
Biotech firm AC Immune, which already has established ties with Roche in drug research, said on Wednesday it would develop a minimally invasive diagnostic assay for Tau with the Nestle Institute of Health Sciences. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Tau is a protein that causes tangles in the brain that are a hallmark of Alzheimer's.
Nestle, the world's biggest packaged food company, announced last week it had signed a separate deal to develop a new treatment for ulcerative colitis.