NEW YORK – Quest Diagnostics said this week that it has completed its acquisition of Haystack Oncology. Haystack has developed a minimal-residual disease testing technology that uses circulating tumor DNA to aid in the detection of residual or reoccurring cancer and inform treatment decisions. Quest plans to incorporate Haystack’s technology into a new blood-based clinical lab service for solid tumor cancers that will be available beginning in 2024. Quest originally announced in April that it was acquiring Haystack for up to $450 million in cash.
Becton Dickinson announced this week that it will sell its surgical instrumentation business to STERIS for $540 million. The divesture comprises V. Mueller, Snowden-Pencer, and Genesis branded products and three manufacturing facilities located in St. Louis, Cleveland, and Tuttlingen, Germany. Approximately 360 employees who support this platform will transfer to STERIS upon the completion of the transaction, which is expected to close within BD's fiscal year 2023, ending Sept. 30, pending satisfaction closing conditions and US Federal Trade Commission regulatory approval.
LumiraDx announced this week that its LumiraDx SARS-CoV-2 Ag Ultra and LumiraDx SARS-CoV2 Ag & RSV tests received validation for use by the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency under the Coronavirus Test Device Approvals process. The Ultra test detects SARS-CoV-2 within five minutes, while the combined test simultaneously detects and differentiates between respiratory syncytial virus and SARS-CoV-2. The company said it expects to begin commercializing the tests in the UK and will start commercial shipments imminently.
Mainz Biomed this week announced that Bioclinica has joined its network of laboratories offering Mainz's ColoAlert at-home colorectal cancer test. As a result, the test will become available to patients in Romania, where Bioclinica has 15 associated labs and 146 collection points in the country, according to Germany-based Mainz.
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.