NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Thermo Fisher Scientific said this week that its board has declared a quarterly cash dividend of $.17 per common share, payable on July 16 to shareholders of record as of June 15.
Agilent Technologies said this week that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the Agilent-related business from Young In Scientific, a leading distributor of analytical and scientific instruments in South Korea, and a long-time distributor of Agilent instruments and services. Once the acquisition is final, Agilent products and related services in the South Korean market formerly sold through YI Scientific will be integrated directly into Agilent's sales and service portfolio. More than 100 employees from Young In and its affiliates are expected to join Agilent Technologies Korea Limited when the acquisition is final. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Agilent and the University of Duisburg-Essen said this week that they have formed a collaboration agreement to form a new Agilent-sponsored Teaching and Research Center for Separation. The center will feature Agilent's gas and liquid chromatography systems and a variety of its mass spectrometry instruments, and the focus will be on teaching students and industry employees about separation science and training them in the use of modern analytical equipment. Agilent also noted that it is developing a global network of centers of excellence to broaden scientific collaborations, and that the University of Duisburg-Essen is the fifth university to join this network.
PerkinElmer said this week that it has acquired Shanghai Spectrum Instruments, a manufacturer of analytical instruments in China. SSI sells analytical solutions and services to research, academic, government, pharmaceutical, industrial, life sciences, and chemical analysis laboratories, includes photoelectric colorimeters, UV-Vis spectrophotometers, atomic absorption spectrophotometers, and accessories, PerkinElmer said. The firm noted that the deal complements its existing atomic spectroscopy business, and will enable it to better serve customers in the environmental, industrial, and food markets in China.
Luminex said this week that its board has declared a cash dividend of $.06 per share, payable on July 13 to stockholders of record as of June 22.
In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission this week, Biocept reported that it is planning a $25 million subscription rights offering to holders of its common stock and warrants that were issued on Feb. 13, 2015; May 4, 2016; Oct. 19, 2016; March 31, 2017; Aug. 9, 2017; and Jan. 30, 2018. The holders of these shares and warrants would receive subscription rights to purchase units, each of which would consist of one share of Series A convertible preferred stock and an as-yet unspecified number of warrants, according to Biocept's SEC filing. Each warrant would then be exercisable for one share of the firm's common stock. Maxim Group and Dawson James Securities are acting as co-dealer managers in the rights offering.
Centogene said this week that it has signed a clinical development collaboration deal with Orphazyme to support Orphazyme’s clinical trials in India on a small molecule, arimoclomol, for the treatment of neuronopathic Gaucher disease. Centogene will process and analyze different sample types from patients participating in the trial including plasma, cerebrospinal fluid, and dried blood spots from Centogene's CentoCard. The partners are also utilizing lysoGb1, a biomarker for Gaucher disease that Centogene developed and validated, as a monitoring tool during the trial.
Biosynth and RAMOT, the Tel Aviv University Business Engagement Center, announced this week that they have incorporated a joint venture called NEMIS Technologies to jointly develop diagnostic kits and solutions for rapid pathogenic bacteria detection for food safety, water treatment, hospital, and clinical applications. The base technology, called AquaSpark, enables highly sensitive chemiluminescence probes for research and diagnostic applications, the partners said.
Immunovia said this week that Linköping University Hospital is now participating in PanFAM-1, a prospective study looking at early diagnosis in high-risk individuals with familial pancreatic cancer. The study is designed to validate Immunovia's IMMray PanCan-d blood test, and will analyze more than 1,000 individuals over three years across sites in Sweden, the US, and Europe already offering FPC screening programs, with the aim of proving the overall healthcare benefits of testing hereditary pancreatic cancer patients. The other PanFAM-1 partners to date are Mount Sinai, the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health and Sciences University, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, NYU School of Medicine, the University of Liverpool, Ramon y Cajal Institute for Health Research, University Hospital of Santiago de Compostela, Clinica Universidad de Navarra, and Sahlgrenska University.
Novogene announced this week that it plans to establish its first genomic sequencing center in Europe — the Novogene UK Genomic Sequencing Center at the Babraham Research Campus in Cambridge. The center will be equipped with a full automation system and Illumina NovaSeq and supercomputing platforms, enabling Novogene to provide next-generation sequencing and bioinformatics services to scientists at European universities, research institutes, pharmaceutical companies, and biotechnology companies, the firm said.
Cleveland Clinic and Brooks Automation said this week that they plan to launch a 21,000-square-foot biorepository in Cleveland's Fairfax neighborhood. The building will be located on the Cleveland Clinic's campus and is expected to be completed in summer 2019. Brooks Life Sciences, a division of Brooks Automation, will manage the onsite operations, beginning with the launch of a sample inventory process that will annotate each sample within the storage facility before moving material to the new biorepository.
Baby Genes said this week that it has received CAP accreditation. Baby Genes provides NGS-based clinical diagnostics for newborn screening, newborn diagnostic testing, and family planning. During the accreditation process, a company's clinical lab records and quality control procedures are assessed by inspectors, as well as its equipment, facilities, safety programs, staff qualifications, policies and procedures, and overall management.
In Brief This Week is a selection of news items that may be of interest to our readers but had not previously appeared on the GenomeWeb site.