Acquisition of Atria Gives Celera Direct Access to Tissue Typing

Celera (Rockville, MD, USA), an Applera Corp. business, and Atria Genetics, Inc. (San Francisco, CA, USA) a privately held company, have signed a definitive agreement whereby Celera will acquire substantially all of the assets of Atria for approximately US$33 million in cash. The acquisition complements Celera's existing molecular diagnostics portfolio and provides high margin products.

Atria has a line of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) testing products that are used for identifying potential donors in the matching process for bone marrow transplantation. Atria participates in the estimated $175 million HLA market, of which approximately 20% is in bone marrow transplantation and the bone marrow registry. The remaining approximate 80% is in solid organ matching.

The HLA proteins are integral to the function of the immune system and are located on the surface of white blood cells and other tissues in the body. There are two main classes of HLA genes, class I (including HLA-A, HLA-B and HLA-C) and class II (HLA-DR, HLA-DP and HLA-DQ). These genes are extremely variable, and DNA sequencing represents the "gold standard” of genetic analysis. HLA testing, also referred to as tissue typing, is a key component in determining the compatibility between potential donors and recipients prior to transplantation to maximize the chances of graft survival and minimize serious immunologic transplant complications.

"This acquisition gives us direct access to this important niche market area of tissue typing in transplantation and the bone marrow registry markets,” said Kathy Ordoñez, president of Celera.


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