NEW YORK – Danaher said this week that its board of directors has approved a quarterly cash dividend of $.25 per share of its common stock, payable on Oct. 28 to shareholders of record on Sept. 30. The board also approved a quarterly cash dividend of $12.50 per share of its 5.00 Percent Series B Mandatory Convertible Preferred Stock, payable on Oct. 15 to shareholders of record on Sept. 30.
Also this week, Danaher provided updated guidance on its Q3 earnings results. The firm said it is expecting high single-digit base business core revenue growth, consistent with its original guidance. However, it noted that respiratory testing from its subsidiary Cepheid was ahead of expectations, with a forecast of more than $500 million in revenues in Q3, compared to guidance of about $325 million.
The company also announced that it would be separating its environmental and applied solutions business into an independent, publicly traded company. On a conference call to discuss the separation and the company’s bioprocessing business, Danaher CEO Rainer Blair said that the firm’s two bioprocessing subsidiaries, Cytiva and Pall, would form a biotechnology group within Danaher.
Drug testing company Hound Labs said this week that it has entered a strategic agreement with Quest Diagnostics. Under the agreement, Quest will perform mass spectrometry-based confirmatory testing of individuals who test positive on Hound’s Cannabis Breathalyzer, a portable system intended for use on location at workplaces.
Separately, Quest Diagnostics said this week that it is expanding its lab services agreement with southwest Florida-based healthcare system Lee Health. Under the agreement, Quest will provide supply chain expertise in laboratory equipment, supplies, and procurement processes for five hospitals owned by Lee Health and certain outpatient centers. Quest will continue to perform reference testing for Lee Health.
Thermo Fisher Scientific said this week that it has certified the Applied Biosystems QuantStudio 7 Pro Dx Real-Time PCR System to meet the European Union's new In Vitro Medical Devices (IVDR) requirements. The system has been updated and now includes the Applied Biosystems Diomni software ecosystem, which can connect multiple RT-PCR instruments and allows for secure data sharing across a user network. The QuantStudio 7 Pro Dx system is available in all regions that recognize CE-IVD certification. It is also listed as a Class II medical device with the US Food and Drug Administration.
Abbott this week declared a quarterly common dividend of $.47 per share, payable on Nov. 15 to shareholders of record at the close of business on Oct. 14.
LGC said this week it has opened a 36,000-square-foot facility at the Oxford Technology Park that will be the new home for The Native Antigen Company, part of LGC Clinical Diagnostics. The facility will also be the host site of an advanced workflow applications lab for LGC Biosearch Technologies. The site offers TNAC expanded manufacturing capacity to produce infectious disease reagents, antibodies, and assays. Meanwhile, the LGC Biosearch Technologies advanced workflow applications lab will support customers to adopt and optimize the use of LGC products.
Sapphiros said it has acquired Flexotronix for an undisclosed amount. Flexotronix has developed a high-speed printed electronics manufacturing line, including a process to manufacture "innovative and proprietary" lateral flow formats. The manufacturing line is near its final validation with a capacity of 5 billion tests per year. Sapphiros plans to use the technology across its companies to lower consumable costs and fully automate diagnostic testing and data management.
Streck said this week that it has made a Series B investment of undisclosed size in Ceres Nanosciences. Ceres, based in Northern Virginia, plans to use the funds to accelerate the development and commercialization of diagnostic and research products that use its Nanotrap particle technology. Nanotrap particles capture, concentrate, and preserve low-abundance analytes from biological samples. A Streck spokesperson said the firm is the sole investor in Ceres’ Series B round.
Delfi Diagnostics will serve as the liquid biopsy partner for the European, multinational lung cancer screening trial 4-IN-THE-LUNG-RUN, or 4ITLR, the company said this week. In the trial, investigators are studying how often at-risk individuals should be screened if their initial CT scan is negative. Under the collaboration, Delfi will analyze the first 9,000 subjects enrolled in the trial in the Netherlands and France, aiming to assess whether its test can identify individuals who are most likely to benefit from more frequent CT scans. Financial terms of the collaboration were not disclosed.
Premier Medical Laboratory Services said this week that it has gained a New York State Clinical Laboratory Permit. The lab, which processes up to 100,000 tests daily, already had Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments and College of American Pathologists certifications. Each state requires a clinical license from its public health department, and New York is among the few that require on-site inspections. The laboratory also passed New York's required proficiency testing.
Cancer diagnostics firm Precipio said this week that it has signed a distribution deal with an undisclosed partner for its HemeScreen test for detecting hematologic malignancies. The new distributor is focused on a healthcare segment with a $100 million potential market opportunity, the New Haven, Connecticut-based firm said. In July, Precipio announced a distribution deal with Thermo Fisher Scientific's Fisher Healthcare for HemeScreen.
CorDx said recently that it received EN ISO 13485 certification for the quality management systems of two facilities in San Diego and a third facility in Atlanta. The certification, provided by TÜV Rheinland, demonstrates the business conforms to quality process standards and ensures the safety and efficiency of the company's products, services, and systems, CorDx said.
In Brief This Week is a selection of news items that may be of interest to our readers but had not previously appeared on 360Dx.