NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) — Roche has received regulatory clearance to finalize its acquisition of Kapa Biosystems, the company announced this week. Wilmington, Massachusetts-based Kapa develops genomics tools. Its acquisition will add to Roche's NGS portfolio by building on its existing NGS target enrichment products, Roche said. Terms of the deal were undisclosed.
Danaher announced this week that its board of directors has approved a quarterly share dividend of $.135 per share, which will be paid on Jan. 29, 2016 to holders of record on Dec. 21, 2015.
Transgenomic announced this week that as of the end of this month, health insurers in the US will cover more than 110 million people for the company's genomic cancer tests, including those that detect mutations in lung and colorectal cancer. These insurers include UnitedHealthcare, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Aetna, and Humana, among others. Transgenomic also said it expects 50 million more people to be covered for its tests in 2016.
Opto-nanofluidic biosystems developer Berkeley Lights said this week that it has signed an agreement with the Icahn Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology at Mount Sinai to provide the institute with early access to the company's OptoSelect light technology for single-cell annotation and genomics. The technology allows for the testing and annotation of very small samples, the company said, and lets researchers see genomic variations at the cellular level.
Illumina said this week that its MiSeq Dx technology has been cleared for use in Argentina.
Great Basin Scientific announced today that a previously announced reverse stock split will go into effect today. The one-for-60 reverse split will reduce the company's outstanding common stock to 3.2 million shares from approximately 190.7 million shares. The reverse split will also cure the company's previously announced Authorized Share Failure.
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.