Dutch genetic testing equipment manufacturer, Qiagen, has announced it will purchase US diagnostics firm Digene Corp. for $1.6bn in cash and stock.
The new company, which will see Digene become a subsidiary of Qiagen, is expected to have molecular diagnostics revenues of over $350m and over $800m in overall sales in 2008.
"The joint franchises link virology with oncology, thereby creating an exceptional platform to add next-generation and high-value molecular diagnostic products and strategically position the company for future growth," said Peer Schatz, Qiagen's CEO.
The most obvious of these future growth drivers is Digene's HPV (human papillomavirus) test which screens for high-risk types of the virus that caysed cervical cancer. To date, this is only test approved in both Europe and US and serves a market that is expected be worth more than $1bn.
According to German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Roche Diagnostics has agreed to pay a €600,000 fine as well as back-taxes to end an investigation into alleged tax evasion by the Mannheim public prosecutors in Germany.
The allegations surround the supply of products to units in Switzerland between 1998 and 2000, which were then sent on to units in other countries at a "clearly higher" price while profits were taxed in Switzerland at a lower rate than would have been incurred in Germany.
"Due to the great complexity and the foreign components, the proceedings likely would have lasted several more years to reach a final conclusion," said the prosecutors' office.
Bio-Rad and Beckmann Coulter have an announced an 8 year extension to agreement to develop and manufacture blood tests for viruses and infectious diseases.
As part of the agreement Bio-Rad will develop new immunoassays for Beckman Coulter's UniCel and Acess systems including Hepatitis B envelope antigen and antibody (HBe Ag and Ab).
"The strengthening of our partnership -- which dates back to 1997 -- represents our combined commitment to add significant value for blood virus and infectious disease testing laboratories and gain market share in the $1.6 billion worldwide blood virus and infectious disease area," said Richard Creager, Beckman Coulter Corporate Vice President, Immunoassay Business Center.
Water Corp. and Rosetta Biosoftware have announced a collaboration to develop interfaces compatible interfaces between Waters mass spectrometry systems and Rosetta's software platforms to allow researchers to perform comprehensive qualitative and quantitative profiling of complex biological mixtures.
This will specifically cover ensure compatibility between Rosetta's Elucidation system for protein expression data management and analysis with Waters Q-Tof Premier and Synapt HDMS systems.
Isogenica and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals have entered into a research and license agreement that will use Isogenica's CIS display technology to select therapeutic peptide targets for Wyeth.
The CIS technology is an in vitro system that allows the rapid generation of libraries from which it is possible to select polypeptides with high affinity and specificity for most targets.
Isogenica will receive research fees and milestone royalty payments for the development and commercialisation of any products resulting from the collaboration.
