CareDx said it will acquire from Illumina the sequencing based typing (SBT) Resolver products and Assign SBT analysis software for high-resolution HLA typing, which the sequencing giant has owned since acquiring Conexio Genomics last year.
The deal—whose price was not disclosed—is designed to further strengthen CareDx’s global presence in the pre-transplant HLA typing market. CareDx created its global HLA typing presence in April 2016 when it completed the acquisition of Allenex, an international transplant diagnostics company whose products are designed to facilitate matches between donors and recipients of stem cells and organs.
“This acquisition allows us to continue to build our transplant business as we commercialize our existing core products, launch new products and now also can leverage inorganic growth options such as Conexio’s SBT,” CareDx CEO Peter Maag said in a statement.
Conexio's HLA SBT assay designs and software developments help usher the global use of DNA sequencing as a routine typing technique a decade ago. Conexio's technology includes sequence analysis software and reagent designs, provided directly by Conexio or by other companies through licence. Conexio's latest products include Assign SBT version 4.7.1 software and SBT Resolver assays.
Allenex is the parent company of Olerup, a global distributor of molecular diagnostic products and services that has distributed Conexio’s HBT product line since 2011. Illumina bought Australian-based Conexio last year for an undisclosed price.
“We see CareDx well-positioned to take ownership of Conexio’s SBT business since the Olerup franchise previously distributed these products,” added Rob Brainin, vp and general manager, applied genomics at Illumina. “The sale of Conexio’s capillary electrophoresis SBT portfolio permits Illumina to focus on next-generation sequencing products for HLA typing.”
Illumina has been a strategic investor in CareDx, a Brisbane, CA, developer of non-invasive molecular diagnostic surveillance solutions for transplant recipients. CareDx has commercialized AlloMap, a gene expression test designed to aid clinicians in identifying heart transplant recipients, and is developing additional products for post-transplant monitoring of other solid organs.
Those products, according to CareDx, use a variety of technologies, including next generation sequencing, to detect donor-derived cell-free DNA to monitor the health of organs after transplantation.
