PerkinElmer to Acquire Euroscreen Products

PerkinElmer (Wellesley, MA, USA), a global technology leader in health sciences and photonics, has announced it has signed an agreement with Euroscreen (Gosselies, Belgium), entitling it to acquire Euroscreen Products, a majority owned subsidiary of Euroscreen, in a cash transaction. The transaction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2007. Financial details were not disclosed.

Euroscreen Products is a leading provider of G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) membranes and cell lines, and the AequoScreen aequorin-based cellular assay platform used in pharmaceutical and biotech drug discovery laboratories. Under the terms of the planned transaction, Euroscreen Products would transfer its portfolio of GPCR screening tools and its exclusive global license to aequorin technology--granted by the University of Georgia Research Foundation (UGARF, Athens, GA, USA)--to PerkinElmer.

"This transaction would represent the next step in our strategy to build the most comprehensive offering in cellular screening and drug discovery reagent technologies,” said Gregory L. Summe, chairman and CEO of PerkinElmer. "The AequoScreen platform would give PerkinElmer the ability to meet the growing demands of our pharmaceutical and biotechnology customers with a complete GPCR screening solution that improves performance and reduces workflow costs, while dramatically increasing lab productivity.”

Aequorin technology, based on a naturally occurring photoprotein, generates large, luminescent signals that result in higher quality data, while reducing the number of false- positives in high throughput and ultra-high throughput screening environments. These advantages of the AequoScreen platform offer a superior solution for GPCR screening over traditional fluorescence technologies.



Related Links:
PerkinElmer
Euroscreen
University of Georgia Research Foundation