Business News
Siemens Developing Companion Diagnostic for In-Development Janssen Heart-Failure Drug
Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics has entered into a collaboration with Janssen Pharmaceutica NV to design, develop, and commercialize a companion diagnostic test associated with an early-stage drug being developed by Janssen. The drug targets autoantibodies directed against the human β1-adrenergic receptor (β1-AR) that may contribute to the development of heart failure. The agreement states that Siemens will work with Janssen to design immunoassay-based companion diagnostic tests for...
Hologic and Quest Diagnostics Team Up For Women’s Health
Hologic and Quest announced that that they have entered into a strategic alliance to more broadly offer testing based on Hologic’s APTIMA family of products, as well as to co-develop and promote "advanced diagnostic solutions" to improve women’s health. The primary features of the collaboration are the national availability of the APTIMA HPV mRNA-based cervical cancer screening test, and a focus on developing and expanding access to diagnostic solutions for women’s...
EKF Diagnostics Demos New Anemia-Testing Tools
EKF Diagnostics (Cardiff, UK) announced the release of a new strip-based test for diagnosing anemia. The STAT-Site M Hgb is a handheld analysis tool that measures hemoglobin levels in a patient’s blood with low-cost test strips. The device is being presented in Amsterdam this week at the International Society of Blood Transfusion annual conference (June 2nd to June 5th). The handheld device can measure a patient’s hemoglobin levels in 30 seconds with 15 microliters of whole...
Qiagen Acquires New Cancer Biomarkers Through Licensing Agreements
Qiagen (Venlo, Netherlands) landed several new licensing agreements for cancer biomarkers. With the new agreements, the company hopes to build its position in the companion diagnostics market. Through new agreements with the Canadian BC Cancer Agency and Columbia University, the company now has access to biomarkers for lymphoma, glioblastoma, and several other cancers. These biomarkers will be developed into diagnostic assays that can assist physicians in choosing targeted treatments,...
Luminex, EMD Millipore Ink New Distribution Deal
Luminex (Austin, TX) announced a new partnership with EMD Millipore, a division of Merck KgaA (Darmstadt, Germany). Through the new agreement, EMD Millipore will distribute multiplex kits for Luminex’s xMAP product line. This includes Flexmap 3D, Luminex 100, Luminex 200 and Magpix. Luminex’s xMAP systems are designed to detect protein biomarkers for applications like immunology, cellular metabolism, cell signaling, and cancer diagnostics. The agreement will include...
Roche Launches SeqCap EZ Pure Capture Bead Kit, Still Plans to Shut Down Applied Sciences Div.
Roche Diagnostics (Indianapolis) announced the worldwide launch of its new DNA target enrichment reagent kit. The new kit, dubbed the SeqCap EZ Pure Capture Bead Kit, is designed to capture and purify DNA samples. This helps ensure high-quality DNA sequencing. The kit will be distributed through the NimbleGen unit at the company and is designed for use with DNA sequencers. While the latest launch spells good news for the company, Roche still plans to shut down its applied sciences division by...
Corgenix and Eli Lilly Join Forces to Develop Oncology Dx
Corgenix (Denver, CO) and Eli Lilly (Indianapolis) announced a new partnership for the development of diagnostic technologies. Diagnostics developed through the partnership would be used for the oncology pipeline program at Eli Lilly. While the financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed, Corgenix will help further the development of diagnostic technology that was first developed by Eli Lilly. This latest agreement is part of Corgenix’s new initiative to expand its...
EKF Molecular To Launch Cancer Gene Detection Technologies at ASCO 2013
EKF Diagnostics (Cardiff, UK) has announced it will launch its Molecular Diagnostics division's PointMan DNA Enrichment kits at the end of this month at the ASCO 2013 annual meeting in Chicago. The global launch will comprise three kits for enriching mutations in BRAF, KRAS, and EGFR T790M genes associated with skin melanoma and colorectal and lung cancers. PointMan kits offer highly specific and ultra-sensitive enrichment of mutant genes in a background of wild-type (normal) genes that is...
Quest Diagnostics Buys Clinical and Toxicology Labs from Humana
Quest Diagnostics (Madison, NJ) acquired the clinical laboratory and toxicology segment of Humana, a health insurance giant. As of now, neither company is revealing the financial terms of the deal. However, Quest Diagnostics will gain access to Concerta’s Advanced Toxicology Network. Concerta is a subsidiary of Humana. Quest Diagnostics will incorporate the insurance company’s labs into its network by the end of 2014. Quest expects the newly-acquired business to become...
Angelina Jolie's Announcement Keeps Myriad Genetics in Spotlight
Angelina Jolie American actor and celebrity Angelina Jolie announced this week via an op-ed in The New York Times that she had undergone a radical double-mastectomy after testing positive for BRCA1 gene mutation. The test that provided Jolie's results was Myriad Genetics' BRACAnalysis, a laboratory-developed test (LDT) that screens for BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations. These mutations are, as anyone following the popular media this week now knows, associated with increased risk of breast...