Company Announcements

In July, Fluidigm and Olink Bioscience announced they will comarket their respective BioMark HD System and Proseek Multiplex technology to enable the interrogation of 96 samples across 92 proteins in a single run from 1 µL of sample in less than a day.

Source BioScience acquired publicly held Vindon Healthcare, a manufacturer of environmental control products for the pharmaceutical industry, in August for £12.2 million ($18.4 million) in cash, stating that the purchase allows it to expand into the US.

For fiscal year 2013 ending June 30, Abcam sales grew 24.9%, 11.8% organically, to £122.2 million ($190.9 million) (see IBO 9/15/13). Acquisitions contributed 11.0% to sales growth. Currency reduced growth by 0.9%. Self-manufactured products accounted for 33% of product sales. Reagent product revenue grew 10.6% organically to account for 91% of revenues. Organic sales to Europe, Middle East & Africa, and the Americas improved 12.5% and 4.8% to represent 34% and 44% of Reagent sales, respectively. Organic sales to Japan and Asia Pacific grew 14.2% and 27.4% to each make up 11% of Reagent sales, respectively. Non-product revenue, which includes custom service, IVDs, immunohistochemistry, royalties and license income, advanced 25.1% organically to make up 9% of sales. Adjusted operating profit climbed 20.6% to £46.5 million ($72.7 million).

In September, Abcam entered into a license agreement with TGR BioSciences under which it will develop and manufacture immunoassay products that incorporate TGR’s CaptSure assay technology.

In September, Soulink named Jack Ball CEO. Most recently, he served as CCO at Accuri Cytometers.

In September, Horizon Discovery entered into a license agreement to access intellectual property related to Harvard University’s CRISPR gene editing technology.

IndiMolecular, a spinout from Integrated Diagnostics, raised $1.5 million in a seed round led by InterWest Partners. The funds will be used to further develop Protein Catalyzed Capture agent technology, which produces synthetic peptide molecules capable of binding interactions that are equivalent or superior to molecular antibodies.

Product Introductions

Corning added four new Corning Microcarriers for large-scale vaccine and cell therapy manufacturing.

In September, Thermo Fisher Scientific introduced new cell culture media for improved transfection performance, including Thermo Scientific HyCell TransFx-H for use with HEK293 cells and HyCell TransFx-C for use with CHO cell lines.

In September, Molecular Devices launched the fluorescence-based EarlyTox Cardiotoxicity Kit.

Cellectis Bioresearch launched a monomeric Compact TALEN, which requires the expression of only one DNA or RNA molecule to be active.

Mexico City is also the location of a new Malvern Instruments office. Opened in August, the office offers pre- and after- sales support.