NEW YORK – Eurobio Scientific, a French in vitro diagnostics distributor, said this week that the entire portfolio of diagnostics products from Czech Republic IVD developer Geneproof has been CE-IVDR marked and is compliant with the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). As such, the products are now commercially available through Eurobio Scientific's UK office in Dorking, Surrey. These products include instrumentation and assays for a wide range of infectious diseases such as sexually transmitted diseases, respiratory infections, bloodborne infections, neuroinfections, antibiotic resistance, thrombotic mutations, and immunosuppressed panels, Eurobio said.
German molecular diagnostics company Epigenomics said this week that its first quarter revenues increased slightly year over year to €134,000 ($144,200) from €115,000. The Berlin-based company said that its Q1 R&D expenses decreased year over year to €1.1 million from €1.4 million a year ago as R&D activities were discontinued due to a company restructuring. Epigenomics initiated the restructuring on Feb. 15 after failing to raise additional capital to fund a pivotal study to support US Food and Drug Administration approval of its next-generation colorectal cancer screening assay. Meanwhile, selling and administrative expenses grew to €4.8 million from €2.0 million year over year due to costs for the realization of the restructuring. The company's Q1 net loss swelled to €5.6 million, or €.1.31 per share, from a net loss of €2.7 million, or €.66 per share, a year ago.
As a result of the restructuring, the company discontinued sales of its Epi proColon test and the company's admission to the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange was revoked. In addition to reducing the number of employees at the firm's Berlin and San Diego sites, Epigenomics has reduced its supervisory board to three members. The company said that it remains committed to maximizing the value of its technology through corporate partnering, outlicensing, and asset sales. Epigenomics finished the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of €6.9 million.
Mainz Biomed has inked a comarketing agreement with TestDNA to offer its ColoAlert test in Poland. The German firm said it is partnering with third-party labs in Europe and select international markets to process samples for the at-home colorectal cancer molecular diagnostic test.
Sophia Genetics said this week that it has joined CancerX, a public-private partnership to accelerate the pace of cancer research in the US, as a founding member. CancerX was announced by the White House earlier this year as part of an expansion of the national Cancer Moonshot initiative. It is led by the Moffitt Cancer Center and the Digital Medicine Society (DiMe) and includes the Office for the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health (OASH).
Chinese biotech company Vazyme said this week that it has signed a global strategic cooperation agreement with US-based Azenta Life Sciences to provide "one-stop" services including next-generation sequencing, automated library preparation, raw materials, consumables, and sample storage. Specifically, the partners plan to collaborate on automated sample solutions, oligonucleotide synthesis, molecular biology services, and GLP standard specification services. Vazyme, a manufacturer of bioactive compounds, said it had already established a collaboration with Genewiz, Azenta's genomic services division, in 2016.
VieCure this week said it has partnered with Clarified Precision Medicine to integrate the Clarified Precision Medicine Somatic and Germline Clinical Consultation process into its artificial intelligence platform to provide support for interpretation of commercial molecular profiling test results. Oncologists will be able to order a molecular test directly on the platform and receive a precision medicine report including a ranked list of treatment options and clinical trials and suggestions for additional testing within 48 hours.
AccuStem Sciences said this week that it has signed an agreement with an undisclosed genomic testing company to support further clinical validation of its StemPrinter ER assay, a 20-gene test designed to stratify patients with early-stage breast cancer according to their recurrence risk. The test is intended to measure the "stemness" of tumors, or how much they behave like stem cells, which may indicate the likelihood of cancer progression and response to standard treatments, the company said. The new partnership will leverage the similarity in platforms, technologies, and human capital at both companies, AccuStem added.
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.