Austin's Luminex ($LMNX) is buying diagnostics firm GenturaDx for $50 million in cash with its eyes on the company's rapid-results assays.
Under the deal, Luminex gets GenturaDx's proprietary PCR-test platform, an in-development tech that both companies say will speed up molecular diagnostics by offering a single-cassette, streamlined process. Luminex plans to pair its MultiCode-RTx herpes test with GenturaDx's platform, hoping to carve out a market share for the rapid-delivery assay.
"This acquisition accelerates the development of integrated sample-processing capabilities for our technology and aligns with our mission to reduce healthcare costs and improve clinical outcomes by providing innovative and affordable solutions to today's clinical laboratories," Luminex CEO Patrick Balthrop said in a statement.
GenturaDx's late-stage tech allows for clinicians to run assays on 12 samples at a time, and its fully automated sample extraction makes it faster than what's currently on the market, the company's CEO said.
This is the second diagnostics-related acquisition Luminex has made in the past few years, following its $34 million buyout of EraGen Biosciences in 2011, a deal that brought the company MultiCode-RTx. Earlier this month, the company snagged a CE mark for the xMAP NeoPlex4 assay, a neonatal blood test for birth defects.
- read Luminex's statement