Agilent has extended its agreement with ChemAxon to maintain the integration between its Kalabie electronic notebook (ELN) and ChemAxon's JChem cheminformatics software suite.
"We are very pleased to be working with Agilent, as our cheminformatics toolkits are particularly relevant to their current and future strategy," said Ferenc Csizmadia, CEO of ChemAxon.
In a separate release, Agilent has said it entered into a comprehensive resale agreement with scientific business intelligence software designer Accelrys.
According to the companies, the agreement should enable them to reduce the cost and complexity of automating data collection, analysis and integration with reporting tools.
"This partnership will enable unparalleled integration of informatics products," said Bruce von Herrmann, vice president and general manager of Agilent's Informatics Division.
"It will significantly benefit pharmaceutical companies that want to spend less time integrating existing informatics solutions and more time developing new, more effective medicines."
Diagnostics expert Celera, an Applera Corporation company, has agreed to buy Atria Genetics for $33m. Atria specialises in making diagnostic products for identifying potential donors during the matching process for bone marrow transplantation.
"This acquisition gives us direct access to this important niche market area of tissue typing in transplantation and the bone marrow registry markets," said Kathy Ordonez, president of Celera.
"Importantly, this is expected to contribute to Celera's objective of providing high margin products with accretive value in a market that is complementary to ours. Additionally, this acquisition has a strong strategic fit enabling our horizontal expansion as we look to exploit the potential for this product line in next generation sequencing."
Laboratory equipment manufacturer Eppendorf has bought scientific equipment maker New Brunswick Scientific Company in an all cash deal worth $110m.
According to New Brunswick nearly three quarters of its shareholders voted for the $11.50 per share deal.
GATC Biotech is to collaborate with the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany as well as the National University of Pusan and biotech company Gene In Corporation, both based in South Korea, to develop a comprehensive DNA microarray-based sepsis diagnostic.
"With nearly two decades of experience in genetic analysis, GATC Biotech is ideally positioned to contribute to research projects relating to human health," said Peter Pohl, CEO of GATC Biotech.
"The successful development of a DNA-based diagnostic will reduce the time between sample collection and diagnosis, and will represent a huge step towards increasing survival rates for patients."
ThalesNano is to continue its global expansion by opening a subsidiary in the UK to strengthen its ties with customers and enhance its activities and visibility in the chemical and pharmaceutical sectors.
The flow-reactor and hydrogenation technology expert and manufacturer of the H-Cube has also signed distributor agreements with Biolab in Scandinavia, Stepbio in Italy and Inkarp Instruments in India.
"Chemists will have a local point of contact for advice on the most up-to-date chemistry technologies and solutions. ThalesNano Inc. was already operating successfully through a distributor company in the UK and can now strengthen and consolidate its position with help of its local team of professionals," said Alex Drijver.
"The UK is a strategic market for the company's growth, as the country's R&D spending is the largest within Europe and has the most developed and innovative pharmaceutical and chemical industry. In this way, ThalesNano can effectively support UK customers at all times with the necessary technology knowledge."
Warwick Analytical Service the analytical service division of the UK's Exeter Analytical has achieved GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) accreditation across its range of analytical technologies that include elemental analysis, optical rotation, NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance), MS (mass spectroscopy), FT-IR (Fourier transform infra red), thermal analysis and particle sizing.
"A growing number of organisations, especially in highly regulated areas such as the pharmaceutical, chemical and healthcare industries, are asking for a higher level of compliance to QC procedures including better traceability on all data supplied," said Paul Hemming, Warwick's European sales manager.
"The achievement of GMP accreditation status shows our high level of commitment towards maintaining top quality standards."
