Company Announcements

Private equity firm Abénex acquired Cisbio Bioassays, a provider of homogeneous fluorescence detection methods, in June from Argos Soditic. Cisbio has 210 employees.

In July, SDI-DNA entered into an exclusive distribution agreement for its reagents with VWR in North America and Europe.

Neogen announced in July that Dr. Clayton Yeutter would resign from its Board in October.

In August, StemBioSys named Cellaviva its exclusive distributor for Sweden and Denmark, and a nonexclusive distributor for the rest of Europe.

Abcam announced in August that Dr. Anthony Martin and Michael Ross will resign from its Board in October.

Cellular Dynamics, a FUJIFILM company, announced in September the division of the company into two business units, Therapeutics and Life Science.

In September, BrainXell licensed iPS Academia Japan’s iPS cell patent portfolio to provide neural cells for research applications.

Half-year 2016 sales for Horizon Discovery ending June 30 climbed 19.3% to £10.2 million ($14.6 million = £0.70 = $1) (see IBO 9/30/16). Products sales jumped 62.3% to account for 47% of revenues, led by robust demand for molecular reference standards, as well as a strong uptake of new cell-free DNA products used in liquid tumor biopsies. Given the temporary impact on molecular screening services due to the consolidation of operations, Services revenue declined 3.1% to make up 51% of sales. However, demand for in vivo and in vitro services were strong. Adjusted operating loss widened 2.9% to £6.8 million ($9.7 million). The company projected full-year sales of £24–£26 million ($32–$35 million) for growth of 25%.

In September, Desktop Genetics entered into a collaboration agreement with Vectalys and Horizon Discovery to design, produce and commercialize custom-made CRISPR lenti-gRNA libraries.

In September, SYGNIS announced that its Navicyte business will collaborate with the European Collection of Authenticated Cell Cultures for licensing and distribution of the Caco-2 cell line to commercial companies. Companies will obtain the license from SYGNIS in the US and then will commercialize them directly.

In September, SOLA Biosciences named Cosmo Bio as a Japanese distributor.

Miltneyi Biotec exclusively licensed from Genethon in September the patents and trademarks, including the right to grant sublicenses, for the development and commercialization of Vectofusin-1, a viral transduction enhancer for basic and translational research. It will be available in November 2016.

In October, Genovis entered into a licensing agreement with Thermo Fisher Scientific for SiteClick technology. Genovis will combine the technology with its enzymes to commercialize GlyCLICK, which will label antibodies at the same site each time. Initial sales will be focused on the preclinical imaging market.

Cambridge Isotope Laboratories and IROA Technologies announced an agreement to develop and distribute IROA’s biochemical quantitation kits.

Product Introductions

In July, Bio-Rad Laboratories released the Clarity Max Western ECL Substrate, an enhanced chemiluminescent detection reagent designed for the visualization of low-abundance proteins.

AMSBIO introduced in July two new recombinant antigens to the Zika virus for the development of a specific and rapid IgG/IgM antibody detection assay.

In July, Illumina launched the TruSeq Bovine Parentage Sequencing Panel, with the ability to test 266 SNP-based markers and to run 96 samples together.

In August, Synthego launched CRISPRevolution, a portfolio of synthetic gRNA products for CRISPR gene editing designed to offer low-cost access to fully synthetic RNA.

HumanZyme in August launched recombinant human LIF (Leukemia Inhibitory Factor) for stem cell research and regenerative medicine applications.

Takara Bio introduced in August fully differentiated Cellartis hiPS beta cells for drug screening and diabetes research.

In August, Meso Scale Discovery released the U-PLEX Human α-Synuclein Kit, an immunoassay for Parkinson’s disease research.

Romer Labs introduced in August the AgraStrip WATEX mycotoxin test kits for testing for multiple mycotoxins from the same sample extract.

In September, Romer Labs launched the AgraStrip Total FUM WATEX fumonisins test kits.

In September, Sysmex America launched the CyFlow single-color, monoclonal antibodies in the Americas.

ZeptoMetrix introduced in September three additional Zika virus lysates to assist in the development of diagnostic tests and for manufacturing QC materials.

In September, GE Healthcare Life Sciences introduced the Dharmacon Edit-R Human Druggable Genome crRNA Library for high-throughput CRISPR-Cas9 functional genomics screening. It offer 7,995 gene targets with 4 crRNAs per gene, and is available in 96- and 384-cell plate formats with one gene per well.

Olink Proteomics introduced in September the Proseek Multiplex Immuno-Onc I protein biomarker panel for immuno-oncology.

Cellular Dynamics launched in September iCell Hepatoblasts, liver progenitor cells generated from human iPSCs.

In October, Elixirgen introduced Quick-Muscle 1.0, a biological reagent that develops skeletal muscle cells from human stem cells in a few days.

Rockland introduced a new line of AccuSignal ELISA kits in sandwich assay formats.

In October, Alpha Diagnostic released the TruStrip Western Blot Validation & Quantification system for on-the-spot validation of Western blot process steps and reagents.

In October, Distribution Bio and Twist Bioscience announced a collaboration to offer therapeutic antibody design and optimization services, as well as an exclusive GPCR targeting library for Twist Bioscience customers. Distribution Bio will develop custom software that will be integrated into Twist Bioscience’s eCommerce platform in 2017.