NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – CareDx, formerly called XDx, said late Wednesday that it has reached an agreement to acquire transplant diagnostic company ImmuMetrix for an undisclosed amount.
A development stage firm based in Palo Alto, Calif., ImmuMetrix was co-founded by Stephen Quake and Dan Seligson and has R&D programs and intellectual property in cell-free DNA, CareDx said. It added that ImmuMetrix has "pioneered contributions" in fields including single-cell gene expression, genome sequencing, non-invasive tests for heart transplant rejection, and approaches to sequencing and analyzing an individual's immune system.
According to ImmuMetrix's website, the company has an R&D program directed at cancer, transplantation, allergies, vaccine, autoimmunity, and asthma, and it has developed assays for immune repertoire profiling.
"We believe that this acquisition will further strengthen our position in organ transplant surveillance for both our current indication in heart with AlloMap and with other organs in our pipeline," CareDx President and CEO Peter Maag said in a statement.
AlloMap measures the expression levels of 20 genes from a blood sample and provides clinicians a tool for evaluating a patient's risk for a heart transplant rejection. The company launched the test in 2005, and the US Food and Drug Administration approved the test three years later.
"The combination of innovative cell-free DNA technology from ImmuMetrix, with the strong commercial channel provided by CareDx, will result in a new generation of diagnostic products to improve the care and treatment of transplant patients," Stephen Fodor, a board member of ImmuMetrix, said.