NEW YORK ─ Bio-Techne after the close of the market on Wednesday announced that it is acquiring molecular diagnostics firm Asuragen for an initial payment of $215 million in cash and up to $105 million contingent upon Asuragen meeting future milestones.
Minneapolis-based Bio-Techne said it will finance the transaction with cash on hand as well as an existing revolving line of credit, and it anticipates closing the deal in its fiscal fourth quarter, which ends in June.
Asuragen booked revenues of more than $30 million in 2020, Bio-Techne said.
Founded in 2006, Asuragen develops, manufactures, and commercializes genetic carrier screening and oncology testing kits. Its products use proprietary chemistries for testing platforms that are widely available, including PCR, qPCR, capillary electrophoresis, and next-generation sequencing instruments, Bio-Techne noted.
Asuragen has a portfolio of molecular diagnostic and research products, including its US Food and Drug Administration-cleared AmplideX Fragile X diagnostic and carrier screening kit for the screening of prospective parents as potential carriers of Fragile X chromosomal abnormalities. The company's Quantitidex qPCR IS BCR-ABL kit enables the monitoring of leukemia patients for minimal residual disease.
Asuragen's business "will be very beneficial to [Bio-Techne's] Genomics and Diagnostics Segment, as we commercialize our pipeline of liquid biopsy tests through our Exosome Diagnostics business, and [it] also opens the possibility of approaching the market with kitted versions of these products," Chuck Kummeth, president and CEO of Bio-Techne, said in a statement.
Asuragen's platform-agnostic approach is used by clinical laboratories, hospitals, and regional laboratories. Its headquarters in Austin, Texas includes a scalable 50,000-square-foot manufacturing facility and CLIA-certified laboratory, Bio-Techne added.
As part of the acquisition, Asuragen's CEO Matt McManus will lead its legacy business and the acquisition integration within Bio-Techne.