NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – NextGen Sciences said today that it has sold its electrophoresis business to Sigma-Aldrich for an undisclosed sum.
The Ann Arbor, Mich.-based company said the deal is part of its strategic realignment plan to pare back its operations and focus on its biomarker services.
Under this agreement, Sigma-Aldrich has acquired NextGen's automated gel casting unit, the a2DEoptimizer, and its large format pre-cast gels for a cash payment and royalties based on revenues over three years.
Sigma-Aldrich will focus its efforts primarily on supplying the optigels to customers in Europe and North America.
NextGen said in April 2008 that it would seek to divest or wind down its software and instrumentation UK-based businesses and focus all of its resources on biomarker services, which include discovery, assay development, and testing.
NextGen licensed its expressionfactory, expressionworkstation, and the orchestratorIMS software suite to eXeTek, a NextGen spinout company, in December.