CRADA FOR INFANT URINE COLLECTION DEVICE

CRADA FOR INFANT URINE COLLECTION DEVICE being sought by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to a June 23 Federal Register notice. The agency is seeking a participant for a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement "to develop innovative ways for collecting urine from infants for subsequent analysis for the presence of viruses." The goal of the CRADA is "to develop a screening test which would be less time consuming and more cost effective for determining whether an infant is infected with cytomegalovirus [CMV] or other specified viral infection," CDC says. Under the CRADA, CDC will be responsible for developing a diagnostic test, while the collaborator "will specially design a new diaper or diaper insert that would enable a diagnostic strip to be placed in it." Explaining the need for the invention, CDC says that while infant viral infections can be detected in urine, the current method for collecting urine -- "placing a urine bag on an infant" - - is "a time-consuming and expensive procedure." Inventions arising from the CRADA are likely to be licensed on a royalty-bearing basis to the collaborator, CDC notes. Potential collaborators are given 30 days from the notice's publication date to respond.