Diagnostics & Imaging Week Correspondent
And D&IWs

MediCult (Jyllinge, Denmark) is broadening its footprint in the assisted reproductive technologies (ART) market by paying approximately DKK126 million ($23 million) in cash for Humagen Fertility Diagnostics (Charlottesville, Virginia).

MediCult, which is quoted on the Oslo Stock Exchange in Norway, also is raising NOK82.5 million ($13.7 million) in a rights offering fully underwritten by Oslo-based Orkla Invest. It will use a debt facility, provided by Dankse Bank (Copenhagen), to fund the rest of the transaction, which is expected to close during the current quarter.

MediCult, which was established in 1987 by a trio of Norwegian investors, has focused up to now on producing media for use in in vitro fertilization (IVF). Humagen, which was founded in 1992, manufactures special micropipettes that are also used during IVF procedures.

Both companies target the same decision maker — the embryologist — within IVF teams. The acquisition will therefore offer immediate sales synergies, MediCult CEO Jesper Funding Andersen told Diagnostics & Imaging Week’s sister publication BioWorld International, as the enlarged entity will be able to offer a stronger product package. And while Humagen had a direct sales force in the U.S., MediCult also will sell its product line directly through its sales operations in Scandinavia, the UK, France, Germany and Italy, Andersen said.

The two organizations also will be able to share regulatory know-how — even though the manufacturing processes they employ are very different. “The two plants will be maintained — no changes,” Andersen said.

The combined company is expected to post pro forma revenues of DKK165 million in 2007. Last year, Humagen booked $3.1 million in earnings before interest and taxes on sales of $9.4 million. MediCult had projected cashflow of DKK5 million to DKK10 million from operations this year, Andersen said, although a planned real estate project will account for part of that figure.

The Humagen purchase is Medicult’s first technology acquisition — the company had previously acquired a number of distribution partners to bolster its sales capabilities. The company has several pipeline projects underway. “Our technology is also lending itself nicely to the creation of well-defined, protein-free media for stem cells,” Andersen said.

The company claims around one-fifth of the world market for ART media. Three big players dominate the supply of fertility hormones. These include Organon BioSciences N.V., of Oss, the Netherlands, which Schering-Plough (Kenilworth, New Jersey) is acquiring for about E11 billion ($14.4 million) in cash; Merck Serono International (Geneva, Switzerland); and Ferring Pharmaceuticals (Saint Prex, Switzerland).

However, the rest of the IVF market, including that involving the supply of disposables, is highly fragmented. “That’s a small company game,” Andersen said. “We’re now the biggest.”

The upcoming fundraising involves the issue of five million shares, priced at NOK16.5 each. Existing shareholders are entitled to subscribe for one new share for every share currently held. Orkla will subscribe for a minimum of 2.7 million shares, but also will acquire shares that are not taken up by existing shareholders. On completion of the transaction, the new shares will represent 18% of the company’s enlarged equity base.

$109M startup boost for Danish proteomics

Proteomics research in Denmark has received a substantial boost — in the form of a DKK600 million (US$109 million) grant from the Novo Nordisk Foundation (Gentofte) to establish a new center for protein research at the University of Copenhagen.

The university already has attracted two scientists to lead research teams at the center — Mathias Mann, currently at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry (Martinsried, Germany), and S ren Brunak, currently at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU; Lyngby).

Three more will be recruited, Ulla Wewer, dean of the faculty of health sciences at the University of Copenhagen, said, either nationally or internationally.

Each of the five research groups will be funded to the tune of about $2.5 million annually. The cash, which will be allocated over a 10-year time frame, also will support the establishment of a core proteomics facility that will be staffed by around 20 to 30 personnel. This will have capabilities in protein engineering and production and in purification and characterization, Wewer said.

Mann and Brunak will divide their time between Copenhagen and their other respective institutions. Mann, one of the world’s most highly cited scientists in the field of mass spectrometry-based proteomics research, had previously held a faculty position at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense.

His work at Copenhagen will focus on proteomics in signaling and cell differentiation and will extend recent work on understanding the dynamics of signaling events, such as phosphorylation. Brunak’s work will focus on integrating systems biology and bioinformatics with information on human disease, in order to open up new therapeutic avenues.

The project, billed as the largest ever basic research initiative in Denmark, came about through “dialogue and discussion” with the Novo Nordisk Foundation, Wewer said. Through its wholly owned subsidiary Novo, the foundation has 25.5% of the equity and 69.4% of the voting rights in Novo Nordisk (Bagsvaerd). In addition to supporting research within the Novo Group of companies, the foundation also has a wider social, humanitarian and scientific mission.

Madagascar selects OraQuick HIV test

OraSure Technologies (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) reported being selected by the government of Madagascar and its National AIDS Control Program to be the exclusive first-line provider of rapid HIV screening tests for the country’s outreach program over the next five years.

The government intends to test more than 400,000 individuals in 2007 with the OraQuick Rapid HIV 1/2 Antibody Test. A major component of the AIDS control program is an outreach effort that includes teams of individuals traveling to highly populated areas and offering HIV tests in convenient locations, including individuals’ homes.

“The rate of prevalence for HIV/AIDS [in Madagascar] is low, and we want to keep it that way,” said Fenosoa Ratsimanetrimanana, executive secretariat of the National AIDS Committee. “Last year we saw a significant increase in HIV testing because we launched a rapid oral fluid HIV test during the second half of the year. This year, we anticipate more than tripling the number of HIV tests administered vs. the prior year.”