Company Announcements

Israel-based Biological Industries launched a US subsidiary in October.

BioCision announced a collaboration with the University of California, San Francisco Transplantation Research Laboratory of Dr. Qizhi Tang to advance cell therapy for organ transplantation and diabetes.

In November, Desktop Genetics signed a partnership agreement with Transcriptic combining their respective CRISPR/Cas9 design software and services for cloud-based, high-throughput cloning of CRISPR constructs.

Meridian Bioscience Life Science revenues for the year ending September 30 grew 2.9% to $48.7 million (see IBO 12/15/15), or 25% of total revenues. On a constant currency basis, sales grew 6%. Molecular Components sales declined 1.1% to make up 42% of Life Science revenue, and Immunoassay Components sales grew 6.1% to make up 58%. Life Science sales in the Americas and Rest of World increased 17.5% and 2.7% to $22.4 million and $8.5 million, respectively. EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Asia) sales fell 10.8% to $17.8 million. Sixty-five percent of Life Science revenues were generated from industrial markets.

In November, BioTime and Hepregen announced the formation of Ascendance Biotechnology, combining BioTime’s ESI BIO research products and stem cell technologies with Hepregen’s application-directed, cellular micro-patterning drug and chemical screening technologies. Hepregen CEO Dr. Vincent R. Zurawski, Jr., was named CEO. BioTime holds a majority equity position in the new company.

Abcam announced in November direct service in Singapore.

Horizon Discovery Chief Business Officer Dr. David Smoller resigned from the company and the Board in November.

Product Introductions

BioGenes launched in October a generic host cell protein (HCP) assay, the E.coli|360-HCP ELISA, with improved HCP recovery properties for E.coli cells.

Chromatrap, a Porvair Sciences business, launched its own ChIP-validated antibodies, starting with nine antibodies.

Sales/Orders of Note

Twist Bioscience announced in November that it will supply Ginkgo Bioworks with a minimum of one hundred million base pairs of synthetic DNA over a one-year period to enable rapid product prototyping.

In November, Cellular Dynamics, a Fujifilm company, announced a supply and license agreement with Roche for exclusive access to specific iCell products to be employed in high-throughput screen and lead optimization. Depending on certain development milestones, the agreement may amount to $33 million.