Amarantus BioScience Holdings, Inc. ( AMBS ), a  biotechnology company discovering and developing treatments and diagnostics for diseases associated with neurodegeneration and apoptosis, today announced it has signed a laboratory services agreement with BD Biosciences, a segment of  BD ( Becton, Dickinson and Company ) , a leading global medical technology company, under which BD’s BD Biosciences Custom Technology Team will perform sample analysis on Amarantus’ LymPro Test® for Alzheimer’s disease. Financial terms were not disclosed.

“The LymPro Test is potentially the first available blood test for Alzheimer’s disease,” said Gerald E. Commissiong, President & CEO of Amarantus. “With this agreement, we expect to have initial data available in the third quarter of 2013, and now have the capabilities required to place LymPro on a path for commercialization in 2014.”

Amarantus and BD Biosciences will be focused on verifying the analytical performance characteristics of LymPro necessary to achieve reproducibility of the assay. Over time, Amarantus expects to execute multiple clinical studies and begin worldwide sales of LymPro as the first diagnostic blood test for Alzheimer’s disease.