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Novacyt Raises €1.4M, Expands Facilities for Newly-Acquired Primer Design

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Cancer and infectious disease diagnostics manufacturer Novacyt has raised €1.4 million ($1.6 million) in a private equity placement.

Under the terms of the placement, investors will receive a little more that one million new Novacyt shares that have been submitted to the Alternext Paris. The share capital of Novacyt following the capital increase will amount to €935,650.53, representing more than 14 million shares with a nominal value of 1/15th of a euro each, the firm said. The dilution resulting from the capital raise is 7.8 percent compared to the 13 million shares currently outstanding. 

The firm also announced today that it successfully completed the acquisition of molecular diagnostics firm Primer Design on May 12, and has now moved its newly acquired unit’s operations to a new facility with the potential to increase capacity. Located in Southampton, UK, the facility is a custom-designed suite of labs and offices totaling 8,500 square feet.

"The move more than doubles the molecular diagnostic footprint of the business, and will allow Primer Design to meet the rapid sales growth it is currently experiencing whilst providing additional capacity to meet anticipated future growth," Novacyt noted in a statement.

The company announced the acquisition of Primer Design earlier this year, raising €7.8 million to complete the deal. Primer Design's portfolio includes 450 qPCR test kits and reagents, as well as a recently launched real-time PCR platform called genesig.

Novacyt said it now plans to develop the genesig products into fully CE-marked kits for sale through its established clinical markets. It will initially focus on developing and manufacturing a CE-marked Zika virus test, followed by a multiplex test to differentiate Zika, dengue, and chikungunya. Primer Design has also hired personnel in quality assurance, R&D, and sales to support these activities.

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