NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Siemens Healthineers announced today that it has reached a deal to acquire Fast Track Diagnostics. The acquisition adds more than 80 platform-agnostic assays and syndromic panels to the menu of tests for Siemens' Versant kPCR Molecular System.
The acquisition also includes a workforce of about 80 employees and sites in FTD’s home base of Luxembourg, as well as in Malta and India. FTD will continue to operate under the brand name Fast Track Diagnostics throughout the world, Siemens said in a statement.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
"We are excited to introduce both FTD's products and world-class team to the Siemens Healthineers family," said Fernando Beils, Siemens' head of molecular diagnostics. "By integrating the high-quality and cost-effective solutions of Fast Track Diagnostics into our own cutting-edge molecular diagnostics portfolio, Siemens Healthineers continues to strengthen and expand its presence in the field of molecular testing and precision medicine," he said.
Fast Track CEO, Bill Carman said that combining FTD's wide range of assays with the Siemens Healthineers portfolio will benefit the firm's customers globally. "In merging our efforts, we're enabling healthcare providers to meet their current challenges and deliver better outcomes for patients," he added.
FTD's PCR-based tests are both single- and multiplex and can detect more than 140 viruses, bacteria, parasites, and fungi. The tests target respiratory infections, gastroenteritis, meningitis, hepatitis, tropical and sexually transmitted diseases, diseases of early childhood, as well as infections typical in immunosuppressed patients.
The FTD acquisition is "the latest example of our ongoing commitment to our molecular diagnostics customers and their patients," said David Stein, head of strategy and innovation at Siemens Healthineers.
The two firms established a strategic alliance earlier this year. Siemens also received premarket approval this year for a hepatitis C virus genotyping test on its Versant platform, and recently acquired Neo New Oncology's cancer diagnostics and inked a deal to integrate Thermo Fisher Scientific's real-time PCR into Versant, as well, all part of strategic initiatives to establish itself more firmly in the molecular diagnostics space.