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BioMérieux CEO Elaborates on SpinChip Dx Acquisition at JP Morgan

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SAN FRANCISCO – In a presentation at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference here on Tuesday, BioMérieux CEO Pierre Boulud provided more detail on the firm's acquisition of Norwegian point-of-care diagnostics firm SpinChip Diagnostics for €138 million ($140.8 million), a deal announced on Monday.

BioMérieux previously made a NOK 115 million ($10.9 million) investment in SpinChip last year and decided to continue with the full acquisition of the company later in 2024, Boulud said. The move comes as BioMérieux seeks to strengthen its point-of-care testing portfolio as part of its five-year strategic plan announced last April. SpinChip will utilize the existing commercial infrastructure BioMérieux has in place for its point-of-care business with "no additional cost," he said.

SpinChip has developed a diagnostic platform that uses a spinning-disk format and a small benchtop analyzer to deliver results in 10 minutes from whole-blood samples. Its first test will be a high-sensitivity troponin I assay that is expected to be submitted for regulatory approval in Europe at the end of 2025. It is also developing an N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) heart failure test and a D-Dimer blood clotting test.

The acquisition also allows BioMérieux to leverage its expertise in immunoassays, a business it does not expect to grow over the next five years but that has strong manufacturing and R&D capabilities. The SpinChip deal provides an "opportunity for synergies with SpinChip within BioMérieux not only on the commercial side for point of care but also in manufacturing and R&D with our immunoassay expertise," Boulud said.

He noted that the immunoassay business is a "weaker franchise" compared to other business areas and came in below expectations in 2024. BioMérieux was looking for a company that has developed point-of-care immunoassays in part because it "makes sense for a diagnostics company to have a strong immunoassay franchise," he said.

To that end, BioMérieux conducted a "comprehensive review" of companies within the point-of-care immunoassay market and created a shortlist of firms it was interested in. The SpinChip acquisition was the "very successful conclusion of a long process," he added.

BioMérieux does not expect SpinChip to have a significant impact on revenues when its high-sensitivity troponin I test launches in Europe in 2026, but Boulud said growth of the business will likely accelerate and be more significant after 2028. BioMérieux plans to fully fund the development of SpinChip's tests, which will require it to reallocate resources within its R&D budget, he added.

BioMérieux's budget for R&D is approximately 12 percent of sales at the moment.

The SpinChip acquisition will "improve the quality of the R&D portfolio that we have and generate additional revenue growth that we did not have," he said.

Boulud also provided additional information on the company's Q4 performance, noting that it placed 900 SpotFire point-of-care PCR instruments during the quarter, many in the US and Japan. SpotFire has "an element of seasonality" when it comes to new installations because the only assays currently available on the platform are respiratory tests — although the company is developing new panels for sexually transmitted infections and vaginitis to launch on the platform.

At the end of the respiratory disease season, there are "very few new installations," but they pick up in Q3 and Q4 as customers begin to prepare for the peak of the season, he said.

Boulud also noted that the beginning of the current respiratory disease season was "kind of average," but that respiratory testing picked up significantly in the last few weeks of December in the US.