Beckman Coulter Acquires Rights to Breakthrough Technologies

Beckman Coulter, Inc. (Fullerton, CA, USA), a developer of products that simplify and automate complex biomedical testing, entered into an agreement to complete the acquisition of NexGen Diagnostics, LLC. The company is a spin out of Lumigen, Inc. (Southfield, MI, USA), which is now owned by Beckman Coulter.

NexGen's assets consist of intellectual property unrelated to current products and Beckman Coulter will pay approximately US$36 million for in-process research and development when the acquisition closes in the fourth quarter of 2007.

The technologies have the potential to revolutionize high-sensitivity testing, including immunoassay and nucleic acid, due to their inherently superior speed and simplicity.
Non-separation immunoassay technology eliminates time-consuming steps while maintaining the sensitivity of the assays. The acquired nucleic acid technology will allow rapid isolation of DNA or RNA from a patient sample without a separate step or reagent.

Richard Creager, corporate vice president of Beckman Coulter's Immunoassay Business Center, said, "We are very enthusiastic about the potential that these proprietary technologies have to improve patient health and reduce the cost of care. If fully realized, they will simplify and automate certain types of immunodiagnostic and nucleic acid testing in remarkable ways, dramatically enhancing the performance of assays and accelerating turn-around time of test results.”

Beckman Coulter develops, manufactures, and markets products that simplify, automate, and introduce complex biomedical tests. Beckman Coulter systems operate in laboratories around the world, supplying critical information for improving patient health and reducing the cost of care.


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