Qiagen has acquired Huntsville, AL-based Genaco Biomedical Products for $22 million in cash plus shares. The deal also includes up to $18 million in milestone payments. The deal gives Qiagen ownership of Genaco's expertise in multiplexing technology for diagnostics work. In multiplexing, a diagnostic test screens for more than 10 targets when patients present symptoms that could be attributed to a variety of causes. Multiplexing, for example, could be used to test for hospital acquired infections.
"We believe that multiplexed molecular diagnostic testing is increasingly attractive due to current trends in molecular diagnostics and research, where identifying pathogens and disease markers against a broad panel of potential markers in a quick and in a cost efficient manner is developing into a significant need," said Peer M. Schatz, Qiagen's CEO.
- here's the release on the deal