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Diagnostic Deals: A Roundup of the Key Mergers, Acquisitions, Alliances, Licenses and Other Strategic Transactions From the Past Month

by | Jul 1, 2019 | Deals-lir, Essential, Laboratory Industry Report

Although not as frantic as the previous month, the pace of deal making remained rapid through the end of May to mid-June. Here’s a quick overview of the trends and key deals. Mergers & Acquisitions In addition to the mergers, acquisitions, and asset sales detailed in the chart below, Illumina announced that it’s pushing back until Q4 the expected close date of its $1.2 billion acquisition of Pacific Biosciences due to ongoing review by UK regulators about competition concerns. After initial review by the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the investigation has moved to Phase 2, where a group of independent CMA panel members will consider the implications of the acquisition. Despite this obstacle, Illumina remains confident that the deal will move forward. In other news, Thermo Fisher Scientific and Roper Technologies terminated an agreement under which Thermo Fisher would have acquired Gatan, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Roper and manufacturer of instrumentation and software used to enhance and extend the operation and performance of electron microscopes. The would-be deal was valued at approximately $925 million in cash when it was announced last year. Although its agreement with Roper turned out to be a bust, Thermo Fisher has been busy. […]

Although not as frantic as the previous month, the pace of deal making remained rapid through the end of May to mid-June. Here's a quick overview of the trends and key deals.

Mergers & Acquisitions

In addition to the mergers, acquisitions, and asset sales detailed in the chart below, Illumina announced that it's pushing back until Q4 the expected close date of its $1.2 billion acquisition of Pacific Biosciences due to ongoing review by UK regulators about competition concerns. After initial review by the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the investigation has moved to Phase 2, where a group of independent CMA panel members will consider the implications of the acquisition. Despite this obstacle, Illumina remains confident that the deal will move forward.

In other news, Thermo Fisher Scientific and Roper Technologies terminated an agreement under which Thermo Fisher would have acquired Gatan, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Roper and manufacturer of instrumentation and software used to enhance and extend the operation and performance of electron microscopes. The would-be deal was valued at approximately $925 million in cash when it was announced last year.

Although its agreement with Roper turned out to be a bust, Thermo Fisher has been busy. This period, it acquired HighChem, a Slovakia-based developer of mass spectrometry software, for an undisclosed amount. The software company will be integrated into Thermo Fisher's chromatography and mass spectrometry business.

Strategic Alliances

Thermo Fisher was busy during the period announcing entry into four new partnership arrangements, including one with Predictive Laboratories to further female infertility research. Predictive Laboratories will implement several Thermo Fisher reproductive health tests for whole-exome sequencing.

Other notable deals included the partnering of DiaSorin and Qiagen to develop a new ultrasensitive test for Lyme Disease.

Here's a summary of key diagnostic deals announced from late May through the third week of June:

MERGERS, ACQUISITIONS & ASSET SALES
Acquiring Company Target(s) Deal Summary
Invitae Singular Bio
  • Price: $55 million—approximately 2.5 million shares of Invitae common stock + $5.7 million in cash
  • Status: Expected to close in July or August
  • Singular employees that stay with company to get up to $90 million in Invitae contingent stock awards
  • Acquisition of firm specializing in single-molecule, cell-free DNA analysis for non-invasive prenatal testing advances Invitae's strategy to push into NIPT space
Ascenda Biosciences Provista Diagnostics
  • Price: Undisclosed
  • Status: Closed
  • Acquisition of proteomic diagnostic firm which produces Videssa Breast test assessing whether women with indeterminate mammograms need a biopsy
BioMérieux Suzhou Hybiome Biomedical Engineering
  • Price: Undisclosed
  • Status: Closed
  • BioMérieux increases its equity holdings in Chinese immunoassay producer in which it acquired majority stake in 2018 from 54% to 67%
Thermo Fisher Scientific HighChem
  • Price: Undisclosed
  • Status: Closed
  • Slovakia-based developer of mass spectrometry software to be integrated into Thermo Fisher's chromatography and mass spectrometry business
Covance Drug Development (Lab Corp) Envigo
  • Price: $485 million
  • Status: No closing date announced
  • Covance acquires Envigo's nonclinical researcher services while Envigo's Research Models Services business acquires LabCorp's Covance Research Products business
Bio-Techne B-MoGen Biotechnologies
  • Price: Purchase of 100% of B-Mogen stock financed with cash on hand for undisclosed price
  • Status: Closed
  • Bio-Techne to include B-MoGen's technology in its own cell and gene therapy products
Meridian Bioscience GenePOC
  • Price: $50 million + up to $70 million more in contingent milestone payments
  • Status: Closing of deal announced in April
Acquisition of Quebec City-based molecular diagnostics firm
Beckman Coulter Life Sciences Cytobank
  • Price: Undisclosed
  • Status: Closed
  • Acquisition of single-cell data analysis and software-as-a-service company enables allows Beckman Coulter to offer a high-end data analytics solution for pharma/biopharma and academic research
Lumos Diagnostics RPS Diagnostics
  • Price: Undisclosed
  • Status: Closed
  • Merged company to keep Lumos name and focus on international launch of RPS' FebriDx blood-based POC test for identifying febrile acute respiratory infections (ARI) and differentiating viral and bacterial infections
Schott Minifab
  • Price: Undisclosed
  • Status: Expected to close in 2019
  • German producer of glass substrates for microarrays and microfluidic components made of glass acquires Australian microfluidics company
  • Combined firms to create centers of excellence for polymer in Australia and glass in Germany
PerkinElmer Cisbio Bioassays
  • Price: $219.8 million
  • Status: Closed
  • PerkinElmer acquires life sciences + DX kits and reagents manufacturer with $50 million in 2018 revenues
Todos Medical Amarantus Bioscience Holding
  • Price: Undisclosed
  • Status: To close when Todos' stock is listed on a national stock exchange
  • Todos exercises option to acquire remaining 80% of its Breakthrough Diagnostics joint venture with Amarantus
  • Parties entered into joint venture in December 2018 to develop LymPro, a blood-based lymphocyte proliferation assay, as diagnostic test for Alzheimer's
Constellation Alpha Capital DermTech
  • Price: Undisclosed price paid in Constellation stock shares
  • Status: Closed
  • Under merger terms, skin cancer diagnostics firm to become wholly owned subsidiary of Constellation
Erasmus University Medical Center GenomeScan
  • Price: Undisclosed
  • Status: Closed
  • Erasmus MC acquires undisclosed number of shares in genomics service provider
  • Both parties to collaborate with Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), an existing GenomeScan shareholder, in molecular diagnostics and research
STRATEGIC ALLIANCES, PARTNERSHIPS & COLLABORATIONS
Partner 1 Partner(s) 2+ Deal Summary
Thermo Fisher Scientific Predictive Laboratories
  • Objective: Female infertility research
  • Dynamic: Predictive Labs to implement Thermo Fisher reproductive health tests, including Applied Biosystems CarrierScan assay, Ion ReproSeq PGS assay, CytoScan Dx assay and Ion AmpliSeq Exome RDY for whole-exome sequencing
Thermo Fisher Scientific Newomics
  • Objective: Develop new microflow LC-MS workflows for validating disease biomarkers
  • Dynamic: Combine Thermo Fisher's microflow LC-MS systems and Nanospray Flex ion source with Newomics' multi-nozzle emitters
Thermo Fisher Scientific Evosep
  • Objective: Develop high-throughput clinical research proteomics workflows for profiling large plasma sample cohorts
  • Dynamic: Combine the Thermo Scientific Q Exactive HF-X mass spectrometer and the Evosep One liquid chromatography solution to develop standardized and high-throughput analytical protocols for proteomics, translational research and pharmaceutical applications
Thermo Fisher Scientific Biognosys
  • Objective: Develop data-independent acquisition (DIA) mass spectrometry-based workflows for quantification of target proteins in plasma and other body fluids
  • Dynamic: Extend existing collaboration aimed at developing methods for analyzing plasma and other body fluids
Qiagen DiaSorin
  • Objective: Develop ultra-sensitive in vitro test for Lyme disease
  • Dynamic: Test to combine Qiagen's QuantiFeron (interferon-gamma release assay) technology with DiaSorin's Liaison automated analyzers
  • Companies plan to market assay for use alongside DiaSorin's existing Lyme disease tests, Liaison Borrelia IgG and IgM
  • Companies also plan to run multi-site clinical validations during 2020 Lyme disease season and apply for regulatory approval in US and Europe later that year
Resolution Bioscience Janssen Pharmaceuticals
  • Objective: Develop Resolution's HRD liquid biopsy test as companion diagnostic for niraparib, a PARP inhibitor being investigated to treat patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer
  • Dynamic: Resolution HRD is a blood-based, cell-free DNA assay that detects single nucleotide variants, copy number variants, and deletions in genes related to homologous recombination deficiency (HRD)
  • If approved, new CDx assay would be first test to find gene deletions from cfDNA and distinguish between single copy and homozygous gene deletions through a blood draw
Caris Life Sciences Debiopharm International
  • Objective: Develop companion diagnostic for new oncology drug being developed by Debiopharm
  • Dynamic: Use Caris' Molecular Intelligence (MI) Transcriptome assay for mRNA analysis to detect rare fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) fusions and identify eligible patients for Debiopharm's FUZE phase II clinical trial of Debio 1347, a selective FGFR inhibitor
Foundation Medicine Bayer
  • Objective: Develop NGS companion diagnostics
  • Dynamic: Strategic global collaboration initially focusing on creating a test to identify patients eligible for treatment with larotrectinib (Vitrakvi), a TRK inhibitor approved in the US for patients with NTRK fusions regardless of tumor type or location
Mayo Clinic Regeneron Pharmaceuticals
  • Objective: Sequence the exomes and genotype 100,000 patient DNA samples from Mayo's biobank
  • Dynamic: Regeneron to pay for the sequencing and genotyping
  • Both partners to have access to the data for research purposes
University of California GlaxoSmithKline
  • Objective: Establish Laboratory for Genomics Research (LGR) to investigate disease-causing gene mutations and develop new technologies using CRISPR to accelerate discovery of new drugs
  • Dynamic: Five-year collaboration in which GSK to provide up to $67 million in funding, facilities for 24 full-time university employees and up to 14 full-time GSK employees
  • Initial focus on immunology, oncology and neuroscience
GeneNews Oncore Pharma
  • Objective: Commercialize GeneNews ColonSentry test in all countries outside US and Canada—specifically, deploy 1.75 million ColonSentry tests in next five years
  • Dynamic: Five-year exclusive licensing and services deal under which GeneNews to receive a fixed fee per test, a special royalty payment equal to 10% of Oncore's yearly profits and 1 million shares of Oncore stock
  • All ColonSentry tests to be processed in GeneNews' Virginia laboratory
  • Initial focus on Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, Spain, Monaco, Italy, Portugal, UK, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Israel and UAE
LabCorp Mount Sinai Health System
  • Objective: Establish the Mount Sinai Digital and Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Pathology Center of Excellence
  • Dynamic: To achieve integration, Mount Sinai to implement Philips' IntelliSite Pathology Solution, which LabCorp is in the process of implementing at its own labs
  • Center of Excellence, to be housed within Mount Sinai's Department of Pathology, Molecular and Cell-Based Medicine, to begin by using new digital pathology tools for interpretation of genitourinary cancers, primarily prostate tumors and head and neck cancers
Sanford Health Harvard Medical School
+
Brigham and Women's Hospital
  • Objective: Determine best practices for using genetic screening to improve population health
  • Dynamic: Four-year collaboration with experts in genomic medicine from Harvard and Brigham and Women's to help guide Sanford researchers use and interpret data collected via Sanford Chip, a new $49 pharmacogenomic laboratory developed test to identify genetic risk factors for medication use and prescription
Decode Genetics Intermountain Healthcare
  • Objective: Genetics research
  • Dynamic: Partners to perform whole-genome sequencing on 500,000 patients in Utah and Idaho in a population health initiative called HerediGene
Cartana Lunaphore Technologies
  • Objective: Develop hardware for automated sequencing and imaging cycles
  • Dynamic: Integrate Cartana's in situ RNA sequencing (ISS) technology with Lunaphore's microfluidic tissue processor technology
Hamilton Enable Biosciences
  • Objective: Fully automate the processing of Enable's ultra-sensitive immunoassay technology in a hands-free workflow with Hamilton's automated workstation
  • Dynamic: Firms to automate the processing of up to 96 liquid biopsy samples at one time using Enable Bio's Antibody Detection by Agglutination PCR (ADAP) technology for immunoassays
NuView Life Sciences Aperture Bio
  • Objective: Evaluate NuView's NV-VPAC1 urogenital cancer test
  • Dynamic: Companies to assess use of the test on Aperture's automated RAPID-B platform, which uses robotic flow cytometry to identify and count targeted cellular material in body fluids
Owlstone Medical International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers (IAHFIAW)
  • Objective: Identify and verify breath-based biomarkers for early detection of malignant mesothelioma, an asbestos-caused disorder common in construction and other union workers
  • Dynamic: Use Owlstone's Breath method to measure volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in breath
  • Three-year project with phase 1 to focus on identifying VOCs in breath of people diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma, and phase 2 to launch a blind study to verify the sensitivity, specificity and positive and negative predictive values of selected VOC biomarkers identified in phase 1
Biocartis Kite (Gilead Sciences)
  • Objective: Develop molecular-based assays supporting Kite's therapies on Biocartis' Idylla platform
  • Dynamic: Collaboration part of Biocartis' ongoing strategy of expanding its presence in the oncology market via a series of immunotherapy and liquid biopsy assays on the Idylla platform
Biotage Shandong Yingsheng Biotechnology
  • Objective: Develop clinical mass spectrometry applications for China market
  • Dynamic: Biotage to provide systems and consumables from its analytical chemistry portfolio to be sold by Yingsheng under its own brand together with Yingsheng's other products
Mobidiag Autobio Diagnostics
  • Objective: Develop observational research analytics tools to assess treatment outcomes for precision oncology
  • Dynamic: New Automobi Molecular Diagnostics joint venture to seek Chinese regulatory approval for Novodiag platform and assays and establish local facilities to manufacture system parts and disposables
  • Autobio has invested €8 million and holds a 65% stake in the venture; Mobidiag owns the remaining 35% under a €4.3 million investment
  • Autobio has also made a €10 million equity investment in Mobidiag itself
Bruker PreOmics
  • Objective: Commercialize consumables and software for Bruker's 4D Proteomics technology
  • Dynamic: Codevelopment and comarketing agreement covering PreOmics' inStageTip (iST) sample prep technology on Bruker's TimsTOF Pro
Bruker Genedata
  • Objective: Develop NGS host cell protein analysis platform
  • Dynamic: Make Genedata's Expressionist software platform support Bruker's TimsTOF Pro 4D omics format
Invitae Horizon Therapeutics
  • Objective: Support Invitae's urea cycle disorder genetic (UCD) testing program
  • Dynamic: Invitae to perform genetic testing and Horizon to provide unspecified financial support for program aimed at improving diagnosis of UCD
Luminex EDP Biotech
  • Objective: Develop and commercialize blood-based colorectal test using Luminex's xMAP technology
  • Dynamic: Test, called ColoPlex, uses multiplexed immunoassay technology and machine learning to detect early state colorectal cancer and precancerous polyps
DISTRIBUTION, SALES & MARKETING AGREEMENTS
Property Owner Distributor Deal Summary
Parallex BioAssays Bioké
  • Products: Parallex BioAssays' SnapChip microarray products
  • Territory: Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg
Patia Premier Medical Laboratory Services
  • Products: Patia's type 2 diabetes risk assay DIABETESpredict which combines genetic risk analysis with behavioral and lifestyle assessments
  • Territory: US
  • Exclusive
Biomerica Maxhealth
  • Products: Biomerica's EZ Detect colorectal cancer screening test
  • Territory: China
  • Exclusive
  • Maxhealth agrees to meet annual minimum purchase requirements totalling $17 million over seven years and pay Biomerica $1 million upfront upon meeting certain undisclosed conditions
LICENSES
Licensor Licensee Deal Summary
ERS Genomics Bioneer
  • Property: CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing technology
  • Bioneer gets right to use technology to develop and commercialize CRISPR-edited cell-based disease models
Integrated DNA Technologies Editas Medicine
  • Property: Newly released CRISPR Alt-R Cas12a (Cpf1) enzyme for human therapeutic applications
  • Exclusive
SUPPLY, SERVICE & TESTING AGREEMENTS
Supplier/Servicer Client/User Deal Summary
Agilent Technologies SomaLogic
  • Multi-year supply agreement for Agilent to provide customized high-fidelity oligo microarrays for the nucleic acid detection step in SomaLogic's Somascan assay
NEW CLINICAL STUDIES
DX Partner Other Partner(s) Description of Study
BrainBox Solutions None
  • HeadSMART (Head injury Serum markers and Multimodalities for Assessing Response to Trauma) to support regulatory filings for marketing approval of the TBI test

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