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Global Access Health Acquires Rapid Test Firm Mologic; Invests at Least $41M in Deal

NEW YORK ─ Rapid diagnostic test developer Mologic announced on Monday that it has been acquired by a group of investors led by the Soros Economic Development Fund with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Both Mologic and its sister company Global Access Diagnostics, or GAD, will be integrated under Global Access Health, or GAH, a social enterprise with a goal of expanding access to affordable medical technology through decentralized research, development, and manufacturing in and for low- and middle-income countries.

GAH will invest at least £30 million ($41 million) in the deal, Mologic said, adding that the transaction involves the acquisition of all of its shares including those held by two private investment managers, Foresight Group and Calculus Capital.

The transaction transitions for-profit Mologic into a social enterprise and allows it to reinvest its profits in pursuing social goals, such as addressing gaps in the provision of global diagnostics in low-income communities and regions that profit-focused businesses have failed to address, Mologic said.

"Mologic’s transition into a social enterprise is a deliberate, logical, and natural step for a company focused on delivering affordable diagnostics and biotechnology to places that have been left underserved by the relentless pursuit of profiteering," Mark Davis, CEO of Mologic, said in a statement.

Davis will continue to serve as CEO of Mologic, and his father Paul Davis will continue as its chief scientific officer. GAD will continue as a separate nonprofit entity under CEO Mark Radford.

Bedford, UK-based Mologic was established in 2003 by Mark Davis and his father, an inventor of ClearBlue, the world's first home pregnancy test.

A number of other philanthropic funds and investors are engaged in finalizing their participation in GAH to further the scope of the organization, Mologic said.