NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – PerkinElmer said today it will buy Pediatrix Medical’s newborn metabolic screening business, which includes a laboratory and StepOne product, for an undisclosed amount.
Pediatrix’s StepOne screening product can analyze over 50 inherited disorders in newborns, PerkinElmer said. The screening lab offers its services to hospitals, medical groups, and to the states of Maryland, Mississippi, Louisiana, Nebraska and Pennsylvania, as well as the District of Columbia.
PerkinElmer said Pediatrix’s screening business will generate revenues of around $15 million in 2007.
PerkinElmer President and COO Robert Friel said the acquisition “should strengthen the partnership with our existing customers by enabling us to offer supplemental screening services for disorders beyond those currently mandated by state and federal governments. In addition, we would be able to provide our customers with supplemental support services, such as potential back-up screening capabilities in the event of emergencies.”
The genetic testing business is a key part of PerkinElmer’s Life and Analytical Sciences unit.
At the UBS Global Life Sciences Conference in New York in late September, Friel said that the genetic screening market tops PerkinElmer’s acquisition priorities, followed by the medical imaging and environmental markets.
The firm followed through on that suggestion last month with the $300 million acquisition of ViaCell, which collects and stores stem cells from newborns’ umbilical cords that might be of medical use by the child or a relative. PerkinElmer expects ViaCell’s flagship ViaCord technology to complement its current prenatal screening tools for the risk of chromosomal abnormalities.