Company Announcements

Expanding their current agreement, in March, Cosmo Bio assumed a leadership position in Japan for the promotion, sale and high-level support of Enzo Life Sciences products. Also, Enzo will expand its global distribution of Cosmo Bio’s research biotools.

Cellular Dynamics expanded its agreement with iPS Academia Japan to include iCell Neurons and iCell Endothelial Cells.

Bristol-Myers Squibb and Meso Scale Discovery entered into an agreement in March to develop diagnostic assays that will measure cerebrospinal-fluid biomarkers for use in Alzheimer’s disease research.

Under an April licensing agreement, Rockland Immunochemicals will market the Lankenau Institute for Medical Research’s portfolio of monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies.

In April, publicly listed SeraCare Life Sciences was acquired by Linden Capital Partners for $4.00 per share in cash, a 25% premium over the 30-day volume-weighted average stock price as of February 13, or around $81 million. SeraCare provides diagnostic controls, plasma-derived reagents and molecular biomarkers, and biobanking and contract research services.

Product Introductions

Thermo Fisher Scientific introduced the Thermo Scientific PEPotec Immuno Custom Peptide Library Service for use in a variety of immunological applications.

Thermo Fisher Scientific released in March the Thermo Scientific HyCell CHO cell culture medium, an animal-derived, component-free and chemically defined medium for culturing a wide variety of CHO cells.

In March, Life Technologies launched GeneArt Precision TALS (transcriptional activator-like effector proteins) for editing genomes and controlling genes with precision and reliability (see IBO 8/31/12).

Oxford Expression Technologies released the baculoQUANT ALL-IN-ONE baculovirus extraction and titration kit, developed in collaboration with Agilent. It bypasses the need for DNA extraction spin columns, plaque assays, and ELISA and immunoassays.

Waters’s VICAM business introduced the Fumo-V strip test for the detection of fumonisin mycotoxins in five minutes.

In April, PerkinElmer launched the HER2Sense preclinical-imaging agent, calling it the first fluorescent, discovery research imaging agent to be based on a commercialized therapeutic antibody. Based on Trastuzumab, it is designed to support breast cancer discovery research and incorporates VivoTag fluorescent dye.

Rockland Immunochemicals released 95 antibodies involved in signal transduction and cancer research that were developed through a partnership with the National Cancer Institute’s Center for Cancer Research.