Abbott to Acquire MS-Based Technology
The acquisition is an endorsement of the system’s potential for clinical diagnostics and thus MS-based diagnostics. Bruker Daltonics provides the system’s microTOF electrospray ionization TOF MS, as well as sales and service in select regions (see IBO 10/15/06). Citing Bruker’s failure to meet certain obligations, Isis initiated mediation with Bruker this year and, subsequently, litigation in Massachusetts Superior Court, according to Isis’s regulatory filings.
Carlsbad, CA and Abbott Park, IL 12/17/08—Isis Pharmaceuticals announced that Abbott has exercised its option to acquire the remaining equity ownership of Isis’s Ibis Biosciences subsidiary for $175 million and earn-out payments. Bayer currently owns 18.6% of Ibis, for which the company paid $40 million (see IBO 2/15/08, 10/31/08). Ibis’s T5000 Biosensor System identifies and characterizes bacterial, viral, fungal and other infectious organisms, as well as human DNA, using PCR and time-of-flight (TOF) MS. “This year we have made substantial progress by advancing our broad pathogen detection and characterization capabilities and establishing a foundation for our commercial clinical diagnostic products,” stated Ibis President Michael Treble. For the first nine months of 2008, Ibis’s commercial revenues rose 17% to $2.9 million. The company stated on a conference call that the number of systems operating in the field is approaching 20.