Hologic Sells Blood Screening Business

During a slow month for diagnostic M&A activity, a noteworthy deal was Grifols’s acquisition of Hologic’s blood screening business. The acquired assets include a San Diego plant, development rights and Hologic’s access to patented technologies under license agreements. In addition to the $1.85 billion purchase price, the sale enables Hologic to get out of blood screening, which Hologic CEO Steve MacMillan described as a “drag on our growth” and concentrate on its core women’s health and molecular diagnostics business.

Both sides to the deal appeared vindicated when Hologic issued its 2017 first quarter results reporting a 6 percent increase in year over year revenue with 8 percent growth in molecular diagnostics (from $129.6 million to $139.9 million) and “continued strength” across Aptima women’s health products on the automated Panther and Tigris platforms. The report also made Grifols look pretty smart, especially the part citing a 7 percent rise in Hologic’s blood screening revenues for the period ($65.2 million) thanks to “Zika-related sales and strong international ordering patterns.”

Other than Quest’s acquisition of northwest nonprofit PeaceHealth Laboratories’ outreach lab operations, most of the other recent M&A activity during February 2017 involved smaller start-ups, foreign ventures and genomics firms. For a roundup of recent key mergers, acquisitions, alliances, licenses and other strategic transactions see “Diagnostic Deals” in the February issue of Laboratory Industry Report.