Head-hunter Katie Davis is consistently keeping up to date with the latest news within the biotech industry, whether that be funding news, acquisitions, spin outs and expansions, legal updates, layoffs and restructuring, collaborations or general product updates. In this blog, we explore the latest updates throughout the month of August. You can subscribe to Katies biotech funding updates over on LinkedIn to keep up to date with the ever-growing biotech market.
Acqusitions, spin outs and expansions
Singular Genomics receives non-binding acquisition proposal from Concentra Biosciences and Tang Capital
Mount Sinai Health said that it has launched a new Center for Undiagnosed Diseases with the help of a four-year, $3.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.
PacBio said that it is collaborating with five healthcare centers in Asia on fertility research. PacBio along with Singapore’s KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital has formed the HiFi Solves Sub-fertility Consortium. The consortium plans to use PacBio’s HiFi long-read sequencing to enhance the diagnosis and treatment of subfertility and recurrent miscarriages.
PCR assay maker Molecular Designs has acquired Lamda Biotech, a provider of research products for molecular biology, functional genomics, proteomics, and gene therapy.
Canadian molecular diagnostics developer LuminUltra announced that it has acquired the Legionella testing business of Genomadix and has licensed rights to develop additional assays on that firm’s Cube portable molecular testing system.
Eurofins Genomics US expands capabilities with new GMP oligonucleotide manufacturing facility
Ovation.io and PD Theranostics (PDTx) complete merger creating a multiomic data company which owns a unique population-scale biobank of disease-specific biospecimens
Agilent completes acquisition of BIOVECTRA, a Canada-based contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) that specializes in biologics, highly potent active pharmaceutical ingredients, and other molecules for targeted therapeutics.
The PPD™ clinical research business of Thermo Fisher Scientific, announced the expansion of its global laboratory services with a new bioanalytical lab in GoCo Health Innovation City in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Legal updates
Natera wins permanent injunction to prevent sales of NeoGenomics’ RaDaR assay in the US
T2 Biosystems said that one of its European patents covering a direct-from-whole-blood pathogen detection method has been upheld by the European Patent Office.
Qiagen has filed a patent lawsuit against Zymo Research, alleging that one of the firm’s products infringes on its intellectual property related to magnetic bead-based sample preparation of extracellular nucleic acids from cell-free or cell-depleted samples.
The US Patent Trial and Appeals Board (PTAB) has invalidated a patent held by 10x Genomics, dealing a blow to the firm’s patent infringement lawsuit against single-cell sequencing competitor Parse Biosciences.
23andMe will pay $30 million to settle a class action lawsuit over a data breach that occurred last year, the company said in a court document. It will also provide affected customers with three years of access to a security monitoring program.
Oxford Nanopore Technologies disclosed that it has filed an ex parte application in the US District Court for the Northern District of California to serve subpoenas on Complete Genomics, Innomics (formerly known as BGI Americas), MGI Americas, and other entities to support a lawsuit that it intends to file in the courts of England and Wales. ONT said it plans to sue BGI Group Affiliates in England for breach of contractual obligations, common law obligations of confidence, and duties under the Trade Secrets Regulations 2018. Oxford Nanopore also said it will file an entitlement claim to a license of certain patents.
Illumina said that the European Court of Justice has ruled that the European Commission did not have jurisdiction over Illumina’s acquisition of Grail. While Illumina has already spun off Grail, the ruling wipes out a €432 million ($477.8 million) fine levied against the firm for “gun jumping.”
The US House of Representatives passes Biosecure Act with Bipartisan Support. Initially proposed in January, the Biosecure Act aims to ban federal funding for products manufactured or services provided by the so-called “foreign adversary biotech companies of concern,” including BGI Group, its affiliate MGI Tech, and MGI subsidiary Complete Genomics, along with WuXi AppTec, which it says is affiliated with China’s People’s Liberation Army.
Collaborations & partnerships
TriLink BioTechnologies® & Alphazyme collaborate to launch new CleanScribe™ RNA polymerase
Nomic® and Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI) launch large-scale protein profiling to investigate immunotherapy responses in RADIOHEAD Study
Arctoris announces strategic partnership with Isomorphic Labs. The partnership will support a variety of Isomorphic Labs research initiatives that utilise cutting-edge AI methods for rational drug design.
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Joins Scale Bio’s ‘100 Million Cell Challenge’ to Accelerate Single Cell Genomics Research
Biocare Medical & Flagship Biosciences, Inc. partner to push the boundaries of spatial biology research!
Precision for Medicine and Navinci announce strategic partnership that will integrate Navinci’s advanced in situ proximity ligation assay kits into Precision for Medicine’s comprehensive service offerings.
Navinci have also partnered with Canopy Biosciences (a Bruker Company), who can now offer Navinci’s in situ proximity ligation assays.
BioSkryb Genomics partners with the Human Cell Atlas to advance access to the next generation of single-cell technology
Liberate Bio integrates Quantum-Si’s next-generation protein sequencing™ platform to enhance gene therapy development
Tempus & Takeda expand collaboration to use multimodal data for oncology R&D
Telesis Bio & Beckman Coulter Life Sciences partner to establish “efficient and scalable” biofoundries for DNA synthesis
Lunaphore & Discovery Life Sciences partner on spatial biology clinical research. Lunaphore’s Comet platform will be added to Discovery’s suite of biospecimen products and laboratory services.
Alveo Tech, Global Virus Network & Johns Hopkins partner on POC MDx assay development program
AdvancedDx Biological Laboratories & Complete Genomics ink alliance for NGS Infectious Disease Assays
CS Genetics & Rosalind Bio partner for cloud-based single-cell data analysis
Kairos Pharma & PreCheck Health Services to develop companion response biomarkers for its prostate and lung cancer drug candidate, ENV105.
Cepheid & Fleming Initiative partner to address antimicrobial resistance
Biognosys & Thermo Fisher ink reselling deal for spectronaut proteomics software
Massive Bio & Foundation Medicine partner to improve patient enrollment in oncology clinical trials.
MGI Tech & Dasa partner to improve next-generation sequencing-based diagnostics in Brazil.
Imperial College London has launched a three-year single-cell research project to study Parkinson’s disease with funding from several pharmaceutical companies (Parkinson’s UK, Imperial, and pharmaceutical companies GSK, Novartis, Roche, and UCB) and a £4 million ($5.36 million) founding gift from the Gatsby Charitable Foundation.
Qiagen will expand its blood screening collaboration with Bio-Manguinhos/Fiocruz, a provider of diagnostics to the Brazilian Ministry of Health.
Agena Bioscience has entered South American markets via distribution agreements with EXSA SRL in Argentina and Uniscience do Brasil in Brazil.
DescendantsDNA signs on Broad Clinical Labs as sequencing services partner
GenomOncology & Precipio partner on Myeloid Test reporting
Pillar Biosciences & AstraZeneca have partnered to expand next-generation sequencing-based liquid biopsy testing in Europe.
Menarini Diagnostics has signed an agreement for the exclusive European marketing rights to Nucleix’s Bladder EpiCheck cancer recurrence test.
Micronbrane Medical has signed on Europa Biosite as a European distributor of its metagenomic next-generation sequencing-based pathogen identification products.
Qiagen & Eli Lilly collaborate to develop an in vitro diagnostic assay to detect genotypes indicative of Alzheimer’s disease risk.
Tempus & BioNTech ink oncology drug discovery research collaboration.
BostonGene & Mount Sinai partner on a clinical study to characterize the molecular vulnerabilities of multiple myeloma, paving the way for personalized treatments & targeted therapies.
Roche subsidiary Foundation Medicine has partnered with Syndax Pharmaceuticals to develop a companion for AML Treatment
Aliri Bioanalysis is the first CRO in France to offer 10x Genomics’s Visium platform that allows for whole transcriptome analysis in the tissue context with single cell-scale resolution.
Informed Genomics has formed a partnership with five UK NGS Trusts to compare the performance of the company’s bladder cancer testing service against the standard-of-care cystoscopy.
Lucid Diagnostics partners with Front Line Mobile Health to promote oesophageal cancer test
Caris Life Sciences & EDX Medical ink molecular profiling distribution agreement
Foundation Medicine nabs five-year contract from the US Department of Veterans Affairs to provide tumor molecular profiling tests to veterans with cancer.
Angle PLC acquires option to license NuProbe USA’s Pan-Cancer NGS Panel
Azenta will be providing proteomic profiling data for 20,000 individuals participating in the FinnGen Finnish biobank project.
GT Molecular has been awarded CDC Contract to develop dPCR Wastewater Assays
EpiCypher exclusively licenses the CUT&Tag chromatin profiling technology from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center
Immunai announces collaboration with AstraZeneca for advanced clinical trial optimization and will receive $18M for the initial phase of the collaboration.
bitBiome and Bluestem Biosciences sign strategic partnership agreement to accelerate bioproduction of renewable chemicals
Product Updates
REVEAL GENOMICS® unveils TNBCDX®: the first genomic test designed for early-stage triple-negative breast cancer.
Vizgen, Inc. announced the first global shipments of the highly anticipated MERSCOPE Ultra™ Platform.
Depixus, a pioneer in single molecule interactomics, announce the launch of MAGNA One, the world’s first consumer laboratory instrument for exploring individual biomolecular interactions at scale.
Lexogen launched two groundbreaking products designed to advance single-cell RNA sequencing workflows: the LUTHOR HD Pool high-throughput single-cell RNA-Seq kit and the LUTHOR single cell dispenser.
PreAnalytiX, a QIAGEN and BD joint venture, launches novel solution for liquid biopsy from urine samples
Asimov launched the AAV Edge, an AI-powered a suite of tools for end-to-end payload design and gene therapy production.
RealSeq Biosciences now offers RealSeq®-Biofluids small RNA library preparation kit for RNA samples derived from biofluids and other low concentration samples
Abbelight introduced the next generation of SAFe Platforms at SFN conference in Chicago. The new platform enables researchers to visualise larger samples and gather more data in a single acquisition.
Singleron launched the sCelLiVE® Tissue Dissociation Kit (Skin) (sCelLiVE Skin), a new all-in-one solution for human and mouse skin tissue.
Zetta Genomics announced that XetaBase is officially UKCA marked!
Mission Bio has launched the Tapestri Genome Integrity CNV Solution, a high-throughput single-cell platform to help cell and gene therapy developers and oncology researchers measure genome-wide copy number variants.
CleanNA has launched the CE-IVD-compliant CleanNGS Dx, a magnetic bead-based sample prep reagent suitable for next-generation sequencing applications within diagnostic workflows
Applied DNA launches Mpox Clade I and Clade II testing services.
Dovetail Genomics launched its Certified Service Provider program. This program is designed to transfer Dovetail’s knowledge to premier service labs around the world. They also Showcased new VariLink™ Assay Findings at AGBT Conference
Takara Bio Europe has launched the Shasta Single-Cell Next-Generation Sequencing System.
Biotype has launched two additions to its Modaplex PCR-based assay portfolio, the Modaplex FGFR3 Mutation Kit and the Modaplex FGFR Gene Fusion Kit, both for research use only.
Standard BioTools has launched a new version of its SomaScan 11K assay that can make 110,000 total protein measurements in a range of sample types including CSF, aqueous humor, tissue homogenates, and cell lysates.
The Indian Cancer Genome Atlas (ICGA) has launched a cancer multiomics data portal. It provides open access for researchers to clinical and molecular data from Indian cancer patients.
Genialis has launched krasID, a biomarker algorithm that can predict patient response to KRAS inhibitors across tissue histology and mutation type.
LGC Clinical Diagnostics has launched ctDNA Mutation Mix v4 reference materials.
Cornerstone Genomics has launched the CodeExome platform to accelerate the discovery of genetic targets by providing researchers with extensive cross-species data.
10x Genomics has launched the Chromium Xo, a new lower cost version of its single-cell isolation instrument.
Qiagen has launched more than 100 new assays for its QiAcuity digital PCR system. The assays are intended to aid in the study of cancer, inherited genetic disorders, infectious disease surveillance, and food and environmental monitoring..
SOPHiA GENETICS unveils new generation of the SOPHiA DDMTM platform, which offers a new architecture designed to more efficiently compute large amounts of data at-scale, while elevating customer experience with integrated access to multimodal analytics modules.
MRC Holland has launched an update to its SALSA DigitalMLPA Probemix D001 Hereditary Cancer Panel 1.
Ambry Genetics has updated its portfolio of tests to detect genetic mutations associated with hereditary cancer.
Variantyx has launched Genomic Unity 2.0, a whole-genome diagnostic test that integrates short-read sequencing and Oxford Nanopore-based long-read sequencing.
Almaden Genomics has launched a new data management and informatics services business to support its bioinformatics and computational biology products.
Infinity Bio has launched its HuSIGHT-Total autoantibody analysis service, this will provide comprehensive coverage of the human proteome with more than 385,000 human protein sequences represented.
Circular Genomics has launched a blood-based PCR assay for the detection of circular RNA biomarkers to help predict whether a patient with major depressive disorder will respond to SSRI antidepressant therapy.
Metabolon has launched an advanced statistical analysis tool within its bioinformatics platform.
Seegene has launched two new RUO PCR assays with enhanced ability to detect mpox clade I.
EIT (Ellison Institute of Technology) Oxford, through its Pathogen Programme, has launched EIT Pathogena, a genomic analysis tool for Mycobacterium.
Illumina has released its version 2.4 of its Correlation Engine software for interpreting results from omics studies by identifying correlations to a repository of processed data sets.
Ginkgo Bioworks has launched Ginkgo Automation, a new product line that offers customers modular automation technologies developed for the firm’s cell engineering platform.
Integrated DNA Technologies has launched new homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) assays to its Archer product portfolio.
Bioneer’s AccuPower HIV-1 Quantitative RT-PCR Kit gets WHO prequalification
Diasorin has submitted a blood-based molecular panel for Gram-negative pathogens and drug resistance genes to the FDA for 510(k) Clearance.
Qiagen gets CE-IVDR Certification for for its PCR-based QiaStat-Dx instruments and assays.
Sysmex Inostics gets NYS CLEP approval for clinical trial use of liquid biopsy assay
T2 Biosystems gets FDA clearance for it’s direct-from-blood diagnostic test for Candida for paediatric use
Foundation Medicine gets FDA approval for tissue & liquid NGS CDx for Lynparza Combo
Fast MDx gets CE-IVDR mark for a fully automated, high-throughput open molecular diagnostic test system called NGX 124.
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