NEW YORK – Thermo Fisher Scientific said this week that it has entered into a definitive agreement with Solventum to acquire Solventum's purification and filtration (P&F) business for approximately $4.1 billion in cash. Solventum's P&F business provides purification and filtration technologies used in the production of biologics, as well as in medical technologies and industrial applications. The business has sites in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia-Pacific and employs approximately 2,500 individuals. In 2024, it generated approximately $1 billion in revenues. Thermo Fisher said the acquisition is highly complementary to its bioproduction business, broadening its ability to develop and manufacture biologics. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of 2025 and is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. Once the deal closes, the business will become part of Thermo Fisher's Life Sciences Solutions segment and is expected to be dilutive to adjusted earnings per share by $.06. The new business is expected to generate mid- to high-single-digit organic growth, according to the company.
Molecular diagnostics company Lucence said this week that Agilus Diagnostics will distribute its LiquidHallmark circulating tumor DNA profiling test throughout India for applications such as liquid biopsy-based early cancer detection, recurrence monitoring, and therapy personalization. LiquidHallmark profiles both ctDNA and ctRNA for actionable mutations in 80 genes and 37 gene fusions. Last year, the test gained Medicare coverage in the US for patients with all types of advanced, recurrent, relapsed, refractory, or metastatic solid tumors.
23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki has partnered with private equity firm New Mountain Capital in a recently submitted proposal to take the company private by acquiring all outstanding shares of its stock at $2.53 per share. The proposal represents an equity value of approximately $74.7 million and allows for the possibility of Wojcicki inviting select stockholders to roll over their current equity ownership. Wojcicki and New Mountain Capital stated their willingness to extend secured debt financing to 23andMe in order to ensure that the company and its subsidiaries have all necessary funds to continue operating until any potential transaction is completed.
Aptitude Medical Systems said this week that its Metrix COVID/Flu test has been granted Emergency Use Authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration. The 20-minute molecular assay detects and differentiates SARS-CoV-2, influenza A, and influenza B and is authorized for use in point-of-care and home settings.
Cancer diagnostics firm Foresight Diagnostics said this week that it has expanded its collaboration with Allogene Therapeutics to include the development of Foresight's minimal residual disease assay as a companion diagnostic to identify patients with large B-cell lymphoma who may benefit from treatment with cemacabtagene ansegedleucel (cema-cel) in Allogene's ALPHA3 clinical trial. The firms will support the development of the MRD assay in the EU, UK, Canada, and Australia as cema-cel is being developed. The drug is being investigated in the ALPHA-3 trial as part of a first-line treatment for patients with LBCL. Patients who receive initial treatment and go into remission but remain positive for MRD, as identified by Foresight's Clarity investigation-use-only assay, will be able to receive cema-cel as a one-time consolidation dose to prevent disease recurrence. Foresight and Allogene announced their initial partnership last year to develop an IVD test to select patients with MRD after first-line consolidation therapy for a Phase II clinical trial of cema-cel.
Sphere Fluidics of Cambridge, UK, said this week that it is rebranding to Sphere Bio as the company is growing and expanding into new markets. Going forward, Sphere Bio plans to speed up development of new assays that take advantage of the multiplexing capability of its Cyto-Mine Chroma platform and to build its commercial and support team. Next year, the company plans to develop modular upgrades to enable cell-cell function-cytokine secretion assays as well as cell and gene therapy assays. These will include AAV/lentivirus titer and CRISPR gene-editing capabilities. In terms of customers, Sphere Bio is focusing on biopharmaceutical firms involved in bioprocessing; contract research, developing, and manufacturing organizations; and academic laboratories. It is also collaborating to develop assays for cell and gene therapies and providing training data for the development of AI models for drug discovery.
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.