NEW YORK – Laboratory Corporation of America said this week that it has opened a new kit production facility in Suzhou, China, and has completed the expansion of its Shanghai immunology and immunotoxicology lab. The new kit production facility will serve the Chinese market, reduce transportation costs, and shorten lead times. The upgraded immunology facility offers an array of drug development tools including flow cytometry analysis, in vitro cell-based assays, immunoassay for biomarkers, digital polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays, and additional capabilities for cell and gene therapy.
Labcorp also announced this week that it has finalized its strategic relationship with Jefferson Health. Labcorp said in May that it was acquiring outreach laboratory assets from the Philadelphia- and New Jersey-area healthcare provider and that the parties would establish a program dubbed Innovation Driving Excellence in Academics intended to advance testing capabilities and technologies.
Additionally, Labcorp declared a cash dividend of $.72 per share of common stock payable on Sept. 8, 2023, to stockholders of record as of the close of business on Aug. 8, 2023.
T2 Biosystems reported preliminary results this week. For the second quarter, the Lexington, Massachusetts, firm saw revenues of $2 million due entirely to product sales, down from $5.9 million a year ago. The firm said it achieved sepsis test panel revenue of $1.3 million, a 7 percent increase over the prior-year period. It also executed contracts for 11 T2Dx Instruments during the quarter. T2 implemented a restructuring program in May that included a workforce reduction of nearly 30 percent and also recently completed Nasdaq listing compliance.
Bio-Techne said this week that its acquisition of Swiss spatial biology firm Lunaphore for an undisclosed amount is complete. The deal was announced last month. The companies intend to accelerate their spatial biology leadership position in the translational and clinical research markets, Bio-Techne said in a statement. Lunaphore’s portfolio includes the Comet end-to-end spatial biology platform, Spyre antibody panel kits, and Horizon image analysis software, as well as the LabSat automated tissue staining instrument.
Thermo Fisher Scientific said this week that its board of directors authorized a quarterly cash dividend of $0.35 per common share, payable on Oct. 13, to shareholders of record as of Sept. 15.
DermTech said this week that it has received a favorable coverage policy from Highmark for its pigmented lesion assay, which measures the expression of two genes. The insurer, along with its Blue-branded affiliates, provides health insurance to approximately 7 million members in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Delaware, and New York. The agreement brings DermTech’s total covered lives in the US to approximately 133 million, which includes 68 million for Medicare/Medicare Advantage and 65 million among commercial and governmental payors. -
Cofactor Genomics said this week that Stanford University has joined its PREDAPT (Predicting Immunotherapy Efficacy from Analysis of Pre-treatment Tumor Biopsies) clinical trial evaluating use of the company's OncoPrism RNA-based immunotherapy predictive diagnostic assay across 11 cancers. There are more than 20 health systems participating in the PREDAPT trial, which is evaluating OncoPrism's ability to predict response to immunotherapy in triple-negative breast, cervical, colorectal, esophageal, gastric, head and neck, kidney, liver, lung, and urothelial cancers.
BPGBio announced this week that it has entered into a strategic partnership with private investment group Grupo Terralpe to commercialize its PstateDx prostate cancer test in Mexico. The mass spectrometry-based test is intended to help physicians differentiate between benign prostatic hyperplasia and aggressive prostate cancer. Financial terms of the arrangement were not disclosed. The company said in a statement that it is exploring commercial opportunities in other geographical regions.
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.