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In Brief This Week: Owlstone Medical, CDx Diagnostics, Helix, Trovagene, and More

NEW YORK (360Dx) – Owlstone Medical said this week that it has initiated the Pan Cancer trial for Early Detection of Cancer in Breath, a "large-scale clinical study" that will evaluate the use of Owlstone's Breath Biopsy platform for the early detection of multiple cancer types.

The trial is being conducted in collaboration with a team of cancer researchers at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Center, the University of Cambridge, and Cambridge University Hospital's NHS Foundation Trust.

They aim to develop breath biopsy tests for the early detection of bladder, breast, head and neck, kidney, esophageal, pancreatic, prostate, and brain cancers.


Equity investment firm Galen Partners this week completed a majority recapitalization of CDx Diagnostics, a specialized anatomic pathology laboratory that uses proprietary technology to detect precancerous precursors of esophageal and oral cancer. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.


Helix said this week that its DNA sequencing laboratory has been accredited by the College of American Pathologists. The firm had received CLIA accreditation in 2015. It operates a next-generation sequencing laboratory in San Diego where it offers a proprietary sequencing assay called Exome+.


Trovagene said this week that it received notice from Nasdaq indicating that it has regained compliance with the minimum bid price requirement under Nasdaq's rules for continued listing. On May 30, Nasdaq notified Trovagene that it was not in compliance with the minimum bid price rule of a closing bid price of at least $1 on its common stock for 30 consecutive trading days.


UgenTec, a Belgian PCR automation software company, and Hamann Laborautomation said this week that they are collaborating on PCR middleware. UgenTec is focused on clinical diagnostics, and its platform, FastFinder, supports tests for sexually transmitted infections, respiratory infections, gastrointestinal diseases, oncology, genetics, and more. The companies now offer PCR middleware and CE-IVD marked, automated PCR interpretation software to laboratories seeking to further automate their workflows.


Premaitha Health said that it has signed contracts through its Taiwanese subsidiary Yourgene Bioscience with two laboratories in South East Asia to establish them as regional hubs for noninvasive prenatal testing. The company did not name the labs, but said both partners are already established NIPT providers in their domestic markets, and that one partner is among the largest listed genomic testing companies in Asia.


Thermo Fisher Scientific this week announced a quarterly cash dividend of $.15 per share, payable on Oct. 16 to shareholders of record as of Sept. 15.


Agena Bioscience and Intermountain Healthcare announced a strategic collaboration that focuses on expanding the use of Agena’s MassArray System for liquid and tissue biopsy in oncology applications. The firms said that Agena's molecular tests augment laboratory services available worldwide from Intermountain Precision Genomics to advance precision medicine in cancer.  


In Brief This Week is a selection of news items that may be of interest to our readers but had not previously appeared on the 360Dx site.