NEW YORK – The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) said this week that it has been named a certified service provider for Pacific Biosciences. TGen's Collaborative Sequencing Service Center recently installed the PacBio Revio and Onso platforms and is the first certified service provider for Onso, PacBio's short-read sequencer.
Inbiome this week announced that it has received breakthrough device designation from the US Food and Drug Administration for its Molecular Culture ID test. The test can identify more than 200 species of bacteria using multiplex PCR and will be launched in the US in 2026.
Alithea Genomics of Switzerland said this week that it has secured a loan guarantee from the Technology Fund of the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN). The Lausanne-based company said the loan guarantee, which exceeds CHF 1 million ($1.2 million), will enable it to bring new products to market, expand its team, and enhance its services. Alithea sells multiplexed library preparation products for RNA sequencing, such as BRB-seq and DRUG-seq.
Liquid biopsy company Angle reported this week that its revenues declined 14 percent for the six months ended June 30 to £1.0 million ($1.3 million) compared to £1.2 million a year ago. The company recorded a loss of £7.7 million, or £2.89 per share, compared to a loss of £9.8 million, or £3.77 per share, a year ago. It ended H1 with £17.9 million in cash and cash equivalents. Angle also reported that it received £9.3 million in a fundraising round completed in June, money that will be used to support commercialization activities including three large-scale pharma contracts that have the potential to deliver long-term revenues.
Cancer detection company ClearNote Health announced this week that its Avantect Ovarian Cancer Test has received a Proprietary Laboratory Analyses (PLA) code. The code, 0507U, is effective Oct. 1, 2024. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services also proposed a preliminary reimbursement rate for the code of $1,160.00, a rate that was established last year for ClearNote's Avantect Pancreatic Cancer Test. CMS will issue a final determination on the reimbursement rate for 0507U later this year that will go into effect on Jan. 1. The ovarian cancer test is intended for patients at high risk for ovarian cancer and uses epigenomic and genomic methods to measure levels of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine, copy number variants, and fragment sizes in cell-free DNA.
MyHealthChecked said this week that it recorded £900,000 ($1.2 million) in revenue during the first half of 2024, down from £2.5 million during H1 2023. The UK firm sold more than 55,000 wellness tests to consumers in H1 and received orders for the delivery of more than 3 million COVID tests during the second half of this year. As of June 30, the company had a cash balance of £6.1 million.
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.