Proposed Biosite-Beckman Merger Clears Antitrust Hurdle
Biosite said this week that the waiting period required under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 had expired without a request from the US Federal Trade Commission for additional information about Biosite’s proposed merger with Beckman Coulter, removing one hurdle from the $1.55 billion deal to proceed.
Beckman, however, still faces the possibility of being outbid by Inverness Medical Innovation as Biosite mulls over a merger offer from that company.
In March, Beckman made a bid of $85 per share for Biosite’s outstanding common stock only to see Inverness raise the ante, with its own offer of $90 per share. A week ago, Biosite said it would discuss with Inverness its offer. The proposal from Beckman still stands, however.
This week Biosite said it has received revised commitment letters from Inverness’ proposed financing sources. According to the letters, Inverness has secured a $1.3 billion secured credit facility from GE Capital Corp. and UBS Loan Finance.
Eksigent Reaches Distribution Plan with New Zealand Scientific
Eksigent announced this week it has reached an agreement with New Zealand Scientific for the sales and service of Eksigent’s NanoLC HPLC product line in Australia and New Zealand.
Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. In March, Eksigent reached a similar agreement with Crelab Instruments for the sales and service of its NanoLC line in Sweden and Denmark.
Based in Auckland, New Zealand Scientific provides sales and service of advanced instruments for life science and analytical laboratories.
Proteome Sciences, Onconome Reach Cancer Deal
Proteome Sciences will characterize prostate and colon cancer antibodies developed by Onconome under a deal announced this week.
Onoconome will provide research funding to Proteome Sciences, but no further financial details of the agreement were disclosed.
Proteome Sciences will use its ProteoShop 2D gel western blotting technology to characterize diagnostic antibodies from Onconome for the diagnostic and prognostic monitoring of prostate and colon cancers. Proteome will also do biomarker discovery using its high-throughput 2D gel electrophoresis platform and its isobaric Tandem Mass Tags for gel-free analyses.
Power3 Receives CLIA Approval; Unable to Meet SEC Filing Deadline
Power3 Medical Products said this week it has received certification to begin offering blood-based tests that are compliant with Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments regulations. The company said it has been given a two-year license to offer its tests.
The company is developing and commercializing protein biomarker-based tests for cancer and neurodegenerative diseases.
The company also said this week that it was unable to file its 2006 Form 10-KSB with the US Securities and Exchange Commission within the extended filing deadline, which ended on April 18. It expects to file the form within 30 days.
Power3 blamed the delay on a dispute with its former auditor, John A. Braden & Company, which is claiming Power3 did not pay for services rendered in 2006. Power3 is required to include certain audited financial statements from its fiscal year 2005 in its Form 10-KSB for FY 2006. The company said it has been unable to obtain the necessary consent for that period from Braden.
Viventia Generates Anti-Cancer Antibody and Target
Viventia Biotech this week said it has generated a novel, fully human anti-cancer antibody and identified a novel target for the antibody.
The antibody, VB1-050, an IgG MAb, was generated from pooled lymphocytes of cancer patient samples. The antibody demonstrates “preferential binding to a host of tumor cell lines, including breast, liver, prostate, and colon, with limited normal tissue reactivity,” the company said in a statement.
Viventia used its proprietary proteomics platform, UnLock, to identify the VB1-050 antigen target, a mutated version of the glucose transporter-8/GLUTX1/SLC 2A8 gene product. The type II transmembrane protein belongs to a “family of highly related hexose transport proteins that are distributed in a wide variety of species,” the company said.
UnLock is based on 2D LC technology in tandem with LC-MS/MS. Viventia is privately held and based in Mississauga, Ontario.
PennState Medical Facilities Select GenoLogic Software
Penn State College of Medicine and Penn State Hershey Medical Center have chosen GenoLogics’ Geneus and Proteus software to manage their research informatics needs across multiple labs and multiple science domains, GenoLogics said this week.
Both Geneus and Proteus will be installed in multiple core laboratories within the college and the medical center.