NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Bruker announced this week that it has completed its previously announced acquisition of an 80 percent majority interest in Nehren, Germany-based Hain Lifescience. Hain is a provider of molecular diagnostics for the detection of microbial and viral pathogens, as well as for molecular antibiotic resistance testing. Bruker has options to acquire the remaining 20 percent equity interest held by the Hain founders, exercisable in or after 2022. The transaction is not expected to have a material impact on Bruker's 2018 non-GAAP operating margin and earnings per share. In 2019, Bruker continues to expect Hain to be accretive to its non-GAAP EPS by $.01 to $.02 per share. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
In addition to the Hain GenoType MDx product portfolio, the firm has developed the Fluorocycler XT, a real-time PCR system with a temperature range and homogeneity for highest reproducibility and high-level multiplexing using Hain's Liquid Arrayassay format. The first Liquid Array assay will be the Fluorotype MTBDR 2.0 for the detection of the M. tuberculosis complex, including its drug resistances against rifampicin and isoniazid, with CE-IVD labeling expected after a test phase in selected early adopter laboratories, Bruker said. The firm is also planning to develop additional Liquid Array assays for affordable mid- to high-throughput syndromic panel testing.
OneOme, a comprehensive pharmacogenomics company co-founded by Mayo Clinic and venture firm Invensure, said this week that it has made a deal with Croatia's Catherine Specialty Hospital to bring its PGx testing to patients. The hospital will offer its patients the OneOme RightMed comprehensive test, which detects DNA alterations that can affect an individual's response to hundreds of different medications. OneOme and St. Catherine are also collaborating on a research study to evaluate pain management treatments for lower back pain, the company said.
Barclays this week initiated coverage of Becton Dickinson with an Equal Weight rating and a price target of $278 per share. In a note to investors, Barclay's analyst Kristen Stewart said the company has a positive fundamental outlook, and with the addition of CR Bard, "BD has positioned itself to be a consistent 5 percent-plus top-line growth company."
Congenica announced this week that it has won a multiyear contract to supply diagnostic decision support services to Genomics England as part of the UK's newly launched Genomic Medicine Service. The British company used its Sapientia platform to perform clinical analysis and genomic interrogation on 10,000 genomes for the 100,000 Genomes Project, a pilot that laid the groundwork for creation of the Genomic Medicine Service.
BC Platforms said this week it will supply its software-as-a-service genomics and data analysis technology to the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa in Finland. The health system, commonly known as HUS, is striving to become the first hospital in Northern Europe to offer wide-scale precision medicine. HUS invested in Illumina next-generation sequencing technology a year ago.
Polish healthcare and diagnostics services firm Medicover said this week that it has reached a deal to buy the Ukrainian laboratory operations of Invitro for €6 million ($6.9 million). The operation comprises 61 blood drawing points and one lab focused on eastern and central Ukraine. The business is anticipated to be consolidated in early 2019.
DNAnexus said this week it has been granted an Authority to Operate under the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) for the management and analysis of biomedical data on its cloud-based platform. This authorization enables federal agencies to rapidly and securely integrate cloud-based biomedical informatics into their research and services, in compliance with NIST 800-53r4, OMB A-130, FIPS-199, and FIPS-200 Federal Information Processing standards for handling moderate-level data. FedRAMP is a US government-wide program that provides a standardized approach to security assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services. Being FedRAMP-compliant means a cloud computing system has established and documented a highly-secure environment that has withstood comprehensive, rigorous review, before federal agencies, or projects that are federally funded, are authorized to engage with the cloud computing system, DNAnexus said.
Myriad Genetics announced this week that Bendcare, a professional organization for community rheumatologists in the US, has endorsed Vectra testing for adults with rheumatoid arthritis. Vectra is a personalized medicine test for patients with RA, and it is used periodically to assess changes in disease activity.
In Brief This Week is a selection of news items that may be of interest to our readers but had not previously appeared on GenomeWeb.