Life Technologies to Buy BioTrove’s OpenArray Business
By the end of 2010, BIOCIUS expects to have 30 employees and to double its installed base to almost 50 systems, according to a company conference call. Currently at a beta site is the company’s latest multidimensional chromatography product, which is designed for applications in proteomics, target discovery, process analytics and quality control. Jennifer Rossi of BIOCIUS told IBO that the majority of customers for the Rapid Fire are pharmaceutical and biotech companies. The installed base consists of end-users in eight countries.
Carlsbad, CA 11/10/09; Woburn, MA 11/10/09—Life Technologies has agreed to acquire BioTrove for an undisclosed amount. The purchase involves BioTrove’s OpenArray high-throughput gene expression and genotyping analysis system for PCR. Applied Biosystems and BioTrove have collaborated since 2007 (see IBO 11/30/07). “This acquisition and other enhancements recently made to our PCR offerings enable us to remain the leader in this space, and exemplify how Life Technologies is setting new technology standards in areas important to the company’s future growth,” said Greg Lucier, chairman and CEO of Life Technologies. The company stated that Applied Biosystems’ TaqMan assays will be available for the platform. In a related announcement, BioTrove announced that it has formed BIOCIUS Life Sciences to hold the assets of its RapidFire Business Unit. Following the close of the BioTrove acquisition, BIOCIUS will be spun out as an independent company. The Rapid Fire High-throughput Mass Spectrometry System performs fully automated, solid phase extracted–based sample preparation prior to label-free screening by MS of chemical libraries against biochemical assays and in vitro ADME assay analyses using triple quadrupole MS. BIOCIUS will also continue to offer contract research services.
