Skip to main content
Premium Trial:

Request an Annual Quote

In Brief This Week: Meridian Bioscience; Cancer Genetics; Agilent; Alere

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Meridian Bioscience announced this week that the US Food and Drug Administration has cleared new claims for the firm's illumigene Pertussis molecular amplification test. The new claims include specimens collected by Copan Diagnostics' ESwab multitransport universal transport system. The FDA cleared the illumigene Pertussis test in March 2014.


Cancer Genetics said that it has received preliminary approval for a $1.2 million gross tax credit from the New Jersey Technology Business Tax Certificate Transfer Program for the year 2015. After expenses and fees, the firm said it expects to receive approximately $1.1 million in net cash from the tax credit transfer. "The additional non-dilutive funding our company will receive will be used to further support our expansion and for the development of our company's innovative technology and tests, which promise to change the cancer care landscape," Cancer Genetics CEO Panna Sharma said in a statement.


Agilent Technologies said that its board of directors has approved a quarterly dividend of $.115 per share of common stock payable on Jan. 27, 2016, to all shareholders of record as of the close of business on Jan. 5, 2016.


Alere has completed the previously announced sale of its BBI business to UK-based Exponent Private Equity for $115 million, plus a potential $47 million in contingent payments. Alere said it would use the proceeds to pay down existing debt.


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.

 

The Scan

Cancer Survival Linked to Mutational Burden in Pan-Cancer Analysis

A pan-cancer paper appearing in JCO Precision Oncology suggests tumor mutation patterns provide clues for predicting cancer survival that are independent of other prognostic factors.

Australian Survey Points to Public Support for Genetic Risk Disclosure in Relatives of At-Risk Individuals

A survey in the European Journal of Human Genetics suggests most adult Australians are in favor of finding out if a relative tests positive for a medically actionable genetic variant.

Study Links Evolution of Stony Coral Skeleton to Bicarbonate Transporter Gene

A PNAS paper focuses on a skeleton-related bicarbonate transporter gene introduced to stony coral ancestors by tandem duplication.

Hormone-Based Gene Therapy to Sterilize Domestic Cat

A new paper in Nature Communication suggests that gene therapy could be a safer alternative to spaying domestic cats.