Louis7 schreef op 3 november 2019 18:36:
In Brief This Week: Thermo Fisher Scientific, Curetis, OpGen, and More.
Nov 01, 2019
NEW YORK – Thermo Fisher Scientific disclosed in a regulatory filing this week that it paid an aggregate purchase price of $14 million for HighChem, a Slovakia-based provider of mass spectrometry software for the identification of compounds that the company acquired in June. HighChem became part of Thermo Fisher's chromatography and mass spectrometry business, in its analytical instruments unit.
Curetis said this week that its wholly owned subsidiary Ares Genetics launched an early access program for its AI-powered next-generation sequencing-based molecular antibiotic susceptibility test. The ARESupa-Universal Pathogenome Assay molecular AST is an expanded version of the NGS-based ARESupa test and is for identifying pathogens and resistance genes. The test can accurately predict antibiotic susceptibility, leveraging AI-based interpretation of high-throughput DNA sequencing data, Curetis said.
Commercial orders for ARESupa tests have exceeded 1,000, and as a result of the early access program, broader commercialization of the test is expected to begin in early 2020. It will initially be offered for non-diagnostics applications in epidemiology, infection control, and outbreak analysis for customers in the public health sector and the pharmaceutical industry, Curetis added. The company is also planning a laboratory-developed test for use on native patient samples for human diagnostics in indications when culture-based methods pose challenges.
Ares Genetics also recently entered into a multiphase partnership with an undisclosed global in vitro diagnostics firm to jointly develop diagnostic solutions for infectious diseases, based on ARESupa, Curetis said.
OpGen said this week that it has closed its previously disclosed public offering of securities, raising gross proceeds of about $9.4 million. The company offered about 2.6 million units at $2 per unit and 2.1 million prefunded units at $1.99 per prefunded unit. OpGen has granted HC Wainwright, the sole book-running agent for offering, a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 705,000 shares of common stock and/or common warrants to purchase up to 705,000 shares of common stock.
OpGen said it will primarily use the proceeds of the offering to complete its acquisition of German molecular diagnostics firm Curetis, provide short-term funding to Curetis, and support the ongoing submission of its Acuitas AMR Gene Panel and its Acuitas Lighthouse software for antibiotic resistance detection to US regulators. Funds may also be used to commercialize products from the OpGen/Curetis combined company, for R&D, and general corporate purposes.
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