NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Osmetech today said that its US distribution agreement with Thermo Fisher's Fisher Healthcare, which was signed earlier this year, has been terminated.
According to the UK-based molecular diagnostics firm, the firms mutually agreed to terminate the five-year contract, which was signed at the end of March.
Osmetech said that the reason it ended the alliance was due to its decision to build its own direct sales force in the US targeting key molecular diagnostic testing labs, as well as clinics that provide pharmacogenomic services. The firm said that it will expand its sales force over the next three years as the molecular diagnostic market grows and it releases more tests that run on its eSensor XT-8 platform.
"We believe that the most effective and profitable way for Osmetech to expand placements of our eSensor XT-8 units and associated test revenues is to market our products directly in the US through our own dedicated sales channel," Osmetech President and CEO Faiz Kayyem said in a statement. "This sales force will be relatively small in the initial phase but structured to allow flexibility in meeting the requirements of the dynamic and rapidly expanding molecular diagnostics market."
At the time the alliance was announced, Osmetech's then-CEO James White told GenomeWeb Daily News sister publication BioArray News that the company believed the deal would "beef up" its sales and marketing efforts and allow the firm to allocate more resources towards bringing its pipeline of tests to market in the US. As of April, Osmetech had a sales force of seven people operating out of its office in Pasadena, Calif.
Kayyem took over as CEO of Osmetech earlier this month.