NEW YORK — Thermo Fisher Scientific said this week that its board of directors authorized a quarterly cash dividend of $.39 per common share, payable on Oct. 15, 2024, to shareholders of record as of Sept. 13, 2024.
VolitionRx has appointed transaction advisory firm PharmaVentures to provide strategic advice and transactional support on the out-licensing of Volition's oncology portfolio. PharmaVentures will advise Volition as it attempts to secure licensing deals for its Nu.Q Cancer blood-based epigenetic assays to help detect, guide treatment of, and monitor cancer, as well as its Capture-PCR detection method for liquid biopsy.
Asprira Women’s Health this week announced preliminary Q2 2024 sales figures for its OvaWatch and OvaSuite products. The company said it performed 1,307 OvaWatch tests in Q2 2024, up 48 percent from 884 tests in the same quarter last year. It performed 6,471 OvaSuite tests in Q2 2024, up 3 percent from 6,289 in the year-ago period. The company’s OvaSuite product comprises OvaWatch as well as its Ova1Plus test. Aspira also said that it has been selected as a finalist for an ARPA-H grant to support development of its protein and microRNA blood test for endometriosis.
Mainz Biomed this week submitted its next-generation colorectal cancer screening test to the US Food and Drug Administration for breakthrough device designation. Mainz has defined the final configuration of its test, which integrates its fecal immunochemical test with proprietary mRNA biomarkers and an artificial intelligence-based algorithm, after readouts from its ColoFuture and eAArly Detect studies. In a clinical study of the next-generation test, the assay had sensitivity of 97 percent for colorectal cancer, sensitivity for advanced precancerous lesions of 88 percent, and specificity of 93 percent.
Helio Genomics last week announced that it completed its separation from its parent company Laboratory for Advanced Medicine on June 19. LAM is a Chinese cancer diagnostic firm, and Irvine, California-based Helio Genomics is an American independent entity. Helio offers a blood-based liver cancer test that uses cell-free DNA methylation patterns and serum protein biomarkers to detect hepatocellular carcinoma. Helio Chief Growth Officer Gary Frazier said in a statement that "the separation from LAM marks the beginning of a new chapter for Helio, one that reflects our growth as a company as we transition from R&D to commercialization with the HelioLiver Dx diagnostics test."
Anti-doping sample collection firm InnoVero this week said it and blood collection firm Tasso have extended their original 2021 partnership to collaboratively develop systems for anti-doping blood testing. Additionally, InnoVero said it will remain the exclusive worldwide distributor of Tasso's blood collection devices for the anti-doping market. The partners have developed a secure and intuitive blood testing system that leverages Tasso's capillary blood collection technology, which is offered as part of the InnoVero SafeSystem product suite.
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.