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

It's been a relatively quiet month on the diagnostic front in terms of both deal volume and impact. Here's a rundown of the deals that did come down.

M&A
CRO acquisitions were the M&A headliners for the period. Not surprisingly, LabCorp was at the center of the storm. After acquiring Covance for $6.1 billion in 2015, LabCorp's contract research business revenue has grown to nearly $3 billion per year. On July 31, the lab giant doubled down by announcing its agreement to buy mid-size UK CRO Chiltern for $1.2 billion. The deal comes two months after Chiltern moved deeper into Asia by acquiring Japanese biopharm CRO Integrated Development Associates. "Our acquisition of Covance has demonstrated the value of combining diagnostic and CRO capabilities, expertise, data and leadership," noted LabCorp CEO David King.

A smaller deal was Cancer Genetics' $12 million acquisition of oncology biopharm CRO vivoPharm announced on Aug. 14. "This accretive acquisition immediately strengthens our market position as the premier partner for oncology therapeutic and diagnostic development," explained CGI CEO Panna Sharma.

The deals are no aberration. Acquisitions of CROs has been a driving force in diagnostic M&A activity throughout 2017, with Thermo Fisher Scientific's agreement to acquire Patheon for $7.2 billion representing the biggest deal of the year so far.

Other notable M&A developments from late July to mid-August:

• Abbott's agreement to extend its previously announced $402 per share cash tender offer for Alere Series B preferred stock in connection with its acquisition of Alere (now priced at $5.3 billion);

• Invitae's twin acquisitions of NGS testing firms Good Start and Combi- Matrix;

• Roka Bioscience's $17.5 million asset sell-off to the Institute for Environmental Health in advance of the company's liquidation; and

• Shareholder rejection of a Chinese equity firm's takeover bid of Epigenomics by shareholders leaving Epigenomics' CEO to comment that the company now faces "an uncertain situation with respect to its liquidity."

Strategic Alliances
On July 27, BioMérieux and Sysmex announced that they were dissolving their nearly decade-long joint venture to bring BioMérieux's IVD products to the Japanese market without explaining why. Sysmex will continue to distribute BioMérieux IVD reagents and medical instruments in Japan until Oct. 31 and provide customer support through March 31, 2018. Meanwhile, BioMérieux will bring its Japanese commercial operations in-house.

On Aug. 17, Helix announced that it had partnered with Illumina Accelerator, the accelerator program launched by Illumina to provide funding, lab space, tech expertise and other support services to startup companies developing consumer DNA products. Under the partnership, Illumina Accelerator will be able to offer its clients access to Helix's expertise in in NGS, software and product development, marketing, regulatory compliance and other fields.

Other notable alliances:

• The strategic partnership between Fluidigm and Ascendas Genomics to develop and commercialize the former's molecular diagnostics products in China; and

• Qiagen and HTG Molecular Diagnostics' new development program— the second under an existing master deal—to use the latter's NGS technology to develop gene expression profiles.