A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

Inverness Medical Innovations (IMI; Waltham, Massachusetts) reported that it has completed its previously disclosed acquisition of BBI Holdings (Cardiff, UK).

BBI specializes in the development and manufacture of non-invasive lateral flow tests and IMI says it has achieved a global reputation for manufacturing superior quality gold reagents.

The final purchase price consisted of cash of about £63.2 million ($123.2 million), and about 251,300 shares of IMI common stock. In addition, existing options to purchase BBI stock have been assumed and have converted into options to purchase about 360,000 shares of Inverness common stock.

Merit Medical Systems (South Jordan, Utah), a manufacturer of disposable devices used primarily in cardiology and radiology procedures, reported that the company has finalized two transactions.

On Nov. 5, 2007, Merit reported that it had entered a non-binding term sheet to acquire cardiac and peripheral catheter platform assets from Micrus Endovascular (San Jose, California). On Jan. 31, the company finalized a definitive asset purchase and supply agreement effecting the transaction.

Additionally, the company said that is has entered into an agreement with Timothy Clark, MD, to acquire intellectual property rights relating to U.S. Patent #7,087,060, “Methods for Obtaining Hemostasis of Percutaneous Wounds.”

Merit is engaged in the development of disposable medical devices used in interventional and diagnostic procedures, particularly in cardiology and radiology.

In other dealmaking news:

• Quest Diagnostics (Lyndhurst, New Jersey) reported that it has licensed rights to uses of the Septin 9 DNA methylation biomarker from Epigenomics (Berlin) to develop a molecular-based lab test for helping to detect colorectal cancer, based on a patient’s blood specimen. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Methylation of the Septin 9 gene is a marker in blood plasma of colorectal cancer, Quest said. It said it plans to develop the test as a supplement to conventional methods of colorectal cancer screening, including colonoscopy and fecal occult blood tests. Epigenomics said it has demonstrated that methylated DNA of the Septin 9 gene in blood plasma indicates the presence of colorectal cancer in early stages.

Quest said it is the first commercial lab in the U.S. to license uses of the Septin 9 biomarker from Epigenomics with the goal of developing a blood-based test. Quest has exclusive rights for an undisclosed period to develop and offer an assay based on the technology.

Joyce Schwartz, MD, VP and chief laboratory officer for Quest, said “Too often, patients fail to undergo a colonoscopy or conduct other types of colorectal cancer screenings ... . A blood test for detecting colorectal cancer, once developed, will be a convenient option that complements other screening methods.”

• Enigma Diagnostics (Porton Down, UK), a developer of molecular diagnostics systems, reported that it has signed license agreements with Applera (Norwalk, Connecticut) for a Real-Time Instrument patent and an Application Kit license agreement. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The agreements provide Enigma with access under patents owned or controlled by Applera for real-time PCR thermal cyclers and real-time PCR methods and compositions in specific fields.

The license agreement covers Enigma’s current and pipeline instrument platforms of automated, real-time thermal cyclers across the commercial market sectors of research and applied markets. It also provides Enigma with an option for a license in clinical diagnostics.

The Application Kit license agreement is for patents covering reverse transcription-based methods, real-time PCR detection process and 5’ Nuclease assays and compositions, for use in fields excluding human diagnostics.

Enigma is developing diagnostic instrument platforms for the detection and identification of infectious organisms, such as bacteria and viruses, in clinical, environmental and biological samples.

• Luminos (Ann Arbor, Michigan) reported an exclusive license agreement with the University of Pittsburgh to use its technology to develop and sell detection kits, which contain a new fluorescent sense to detect the rare metals palladium and platinum. The fluorescent molecule was developed in Kazunori Koide’s lab, a chemistry professor at the university. According to the company, the technology allows the user to quantitatively detect palladium or platinum in samples simply and rapidly using the fluorescent signal generated.

Luminos said the technology has applications in multiple product areas. It expects the first product using the technology to be on the market by late summer.

Luminos develops assay kit products for the detection of important biological molecules.

• Luminex (Austin, Texas) said it has renewed and expanded Invitrogen’s (Carlsbad, California) license and supply agreement for Luminex’s multiplexed analyte detection technology and systems. The new agreement extends the lifetime of the license and provides Invitrogen with access to Luminex’s next-generation multiplex detection platforms.

xMAP Technology and Luminex instrument platforms use proprietary microspheres — micron-sized beads — encoded with combinations of spectrally distinct fluorescent dyes to rapidly and reproducibly determine the relative concentrations of many different proteins or peptides at the same time in the same sample.