NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Qiagen said this week that it will be begin offering a quality control set and verification data with its GeneReader NGS System. The company will integrate Horizon Discovery Group's industry-standard reference control data set into the GeneReader NGS workflow. Further, Qiagen said its GeneRead QIAact Actionable Insights Tumor Panel has demonstrated accuracy, consistency, and reliability in testing compared with Horizon's control data. The workflow also achieved full concordance with the Horizon Quantitative Multiplex FFPE Reference Standards in correctly identifying eight critical cancer-linked variants above 5 percent allelic frequency covered by the control data.
Danaher announced this week that its board has declared a pro rata dividend of all of the common stock of Fortive Corporation, payable on July 2 to Danaher stockholders of record as of the close of business on June 15. The dividend reflects the previously announced separation of Danaher's existing test and measurement segment, industrial technologies segment excluding the product identification platform, and retail/commercial petroleum platform through the planned spin-off of Fortive. As a result of the dividend, Danaher stockholders will receive one share of Fortive common stock for every two shares of Danaher common stock they hold on the record date. Fractional shares of Fortive will be aggregated and sold on the open market, and the net proceeds distributed pro rata in cash payments to the Danaher stockholders who otherwise would have received fractional shares of Fortive common stock.
ArcherDX announced this week that Cancer Genetics has become a certified service provider of Archer FusionPlex NGS assays. Additionally, Cancer Genetics plans to use Archer VariantPlex assays to identify CNVs and point mutations in tumor samples, and will be testing these assays in cell-free variant detection.
ArcherDX also said this week that molecular diagnostics company Admera Health has become a certified service provider of Archer FusionPlex assays.
Great Basin Scientific said this week that it has closed its previously announced public offering of 3.16 million units at a public offering price of $1.90 per unit. The company raised gross proceeds of approximately $6 million. After paying the placement agent's fees and estimated offering expenses, the firm expects to receive net proceeds of approximately $5.2 million, which it will use to fund its research and development, for sales and marketing expenses, to support the manufacture of additional analyzers, to expand its manufacturing capacity, and for general corporate purposes including working capital.
Integrated DNA Technologies announced this week that it has acquired MBiotech, a distributor of IDT products in South Korea. MBiotech has represented IDT in South Korea for over a decade, and also distributes products for other manufacturers, including reagents, enzymes, kits, consumables, and lab equipment. IDT said it will continue MBiotech's distribution activities of other manufacturers' products.
European genome analysis center Centre Nacional d'Anàlisi Genòmica (CNAG) announced this week that it has been accredited according to UNE-EN ISO/IEC 17025:2005 standard by Entidad Nacional de Acreditación, an independent non-profit organization appointed as the Spanish National Accreditation Body. UNE-EN ISO/IEC 17025:2005 is an international standard for laboratories that specifies general requirements for the competence to carry out tests. ENAC audited the lab's ability to complete RNA sequencing, whole-exome sequencing, whole-genome sequencing, and whole-genome bisulfite sequencing applications. The auditors also assessed CNAG's in-house developed LIMS database.
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.