The MariCal/NPS Pharmaceuticals cross-licensing agreement covers the broad roles of CaSRs in biology. The agreement is important because it gives MariCal exclusive rights to the entire area of aquatic non-mammalian CaSRs and any products produced with this knowledge. It is widely acknowledged that NPS Pharmaceuticals holds the dominant global patents in mammalian CaSR biology and has sublicensed specific areas of human biology to companies such as Amgen Pharmaceuticals, Kirin Pharmaceuticals, and GlaxoSmithKline.