NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Illumina said this week that its board has authorized the repurchase of up to $250 million of the company's common stock. The new repurchase program is in addition to Illumina's current program, which has $117.5 million available for share repurchases.
The US Food and Drug Administration confirmed by notice in the Federal Register that its Molecular and Clinical Genetics Panel of the Medical Devices Advisory Committee will review Exact Sciences' premarket approval application for the Cologuard colorectal screening test on March 27.
Separately, the panel has scheduled a meeting for March 26 to discuss Epigenomics' blood-based colorectal cancer screening test called Epi proColon. The FDA panel had previously set a tentative meeting date of March 25. Epigenomics completed its PMA submission for the test early last year.
Source BioScience opened a new laboratory in Tramore, County Waterford, Ireland. The company said the new facility "is key to the growth of Source BioScience's DNA sequencing service in Ireland," and complements the firm's existing controlled environment storage facility in Tramore.
Bureau Veritas successfully completed the purchase of Maxxam Analytics International on Jan. 31 for C$650 million (US$587 million). Based in Ontario, Maxxam's main business operations are DNA/forensics services, environmental services, and petroleum services. It has about 2,500 employees, and for the fiscal year ended March 2013 recorded C$246 million in revenues. Bureau Veritas, headquartered in France, provides conformity assessment and certification services.
1st Detect has entered into an original equipment manufacturing agreement with Rigaku. The 1st Detect OEM-1000PI mass spectrometer has been integrated with Rigaku's Thermogravimetric Analyzer, resulting in the Thermo iMS2, the world's first integrated thermogravimetric analyzer with MS/MS capabilities, 1st Detect said. The company is a subsidiary of Astrotech.
In Brief This Week is a Friday column containing news items that our readers may have missed during the week.