A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

Acrongenomics (London) reported that its restructured relationship with Molecular Vision (also London), an Imperial College London spin-out company, as first reported in August, has been completed.

As a result, Acrongenomics becomes the largest single shareholder in Molecular Vision, with a roughly 28% ownership. Thus, Acrongenomics acquires a significant stake in the Molecular Vision technology and its current patents.

Until Aug. 19, it had been operating pursuant to a development agreement originally dated May 23, 2006, and amended thereafter, whereby Acrogenomics funded with about $4 million the development of the point-of-care device of Molecular Vision in specific medical diagnostics fields, in return for a license to commercialize and sell that device.

Under formal agreements dated Nov. 13, Acrogenomics and Molecular Vision terminated that development agreement.

In addition to its shareholding in Molecular Vision, Acrongenomics is entitled to two separate forms of royalties: 1) 5% on indirect license fee sales (i.e., sales from any other company) and 0.5% on direct product sales received by Molecular Vision for products based on Molecular Vision's current suite of patents regarding any and all medical diagnostics; and 2) 3% on indirect license fee sales and 0.3% on direct product sales received by Molecular Vision for products in all other fields of application based on Molecular Vision's current suite of patents.

Acrongenomics is entitled to appoint a director to the board of Molecular Vision and chose Dr. Emmanuel (Manos) Topoglidis as its representative. Topoglidis, a graduate of Imperial College London, is the CTO at Acrogenomics as well as a member of the board of directors and scientific advisory board.

Acrongenomics focuses on investing in and commercializing novel technology platforms concerning the life sciences sector.

Molecular Vision develops low-cost diagnostic devices for use in in-office surgery and in the home.

In other dealmaking news:

• Invitrogen (Carlsbad, California) and Applied Biosystems (AB; Norwalk, Connecticut) reported the preliminary results of elections made by AB stockholders regarding their preferences as to the form of merger consideration they will receive in the pending $6.7 billion acquisition of AB by Invitrogen. The election deadline for AB stockholders to have made merger consideration elections in connection with the proposed merger was 5 p.m. EST on Wednesday.

Of the 172,504,949 shares of AB common stock outstanding as of Nov. 19, holders of 144,161,857 shares, or about 84% of outstanding shares, elected to receive cash; 4,465,325 shares, or about 2% of outstanding shares, elected to receive Invitrogen common stock; 12,300,710 shares, or about 7%, elected to receive mixed consideration consisting of part cash and part Invitrogen common stock; and 11,577,057 shares, or about 7%, did not make a valid election and therefore will be deemed to have elected to receive mixed consideration, entitling them to receive consideration consisting of part cash and part Invitrogen common stock.

Invitrogen provides technologies for disease research, drug discovery and commercial bioproduction.

AB is a developer of instrument-based systems, consumables, software, and services for academic research, the life science industry and commercial markets.

• Roche (Basel, Switzerland) reported that it will acquire all the shares in Swisslab (Berlin) for an undisclosed sum. The transaction is expected to be completed in the first half of 2009.

Through this acquisition, Roche is seeking to expand its portfolio of fully integrated solutions for laboratory diagnostics, including information technology systems. The laboratory information system Swisslab, together with the LAURIS module, permits highly efficient management of laboratory processes and diagnostic data in large core laboratories and in specialty laboratories concerned with areas such as microbiology, blood banks, newborn screening, pathology, histology, transfusion management, genetics and HLA typing, as well as point-of-care integration and quality management.

With the growing trend towards consolidation of hospitals and laboratories, distributed, high performance laboratory information systems are becoming increasingly important, making a highly significant contribution to efficient and cost-effective laboratory diagnostics.

With the acquisition of Swisslab, Roche said it will become an international leader in the supply of software solutions for in vitro diagnostics. Roche said it will now be better able to meet its customers needs by offering - in addition to the leading Roche laboratory diagnostics systems - highly efficient integrated IT solutions and services for university laboratories, large laboratories, medical diagnostic service companies and laboratory networks.

• VisualSonics (Toronto) and Seno Medical Instruments (San Antonio) reported the official signing of a licensing agreement providing VisualSonics exclusive rights to Seno Medical's Opto-Acoustic technology for pre-clinical research.

"The application of opto-acoustic technology to our Vevo preclinical imaging platform is an exciting new area for VisualSonics," said Tom Little, president/CEO of VisualSonics, "We will be enabling researchers to push the limits of discovery as we develop tools for intracellular and molecular imaging with VisualSonics technology and Seno Medical IP."

VisualSonics will embed Seno's opto-acoustic technology in their next generation of high-frequency ultrasound platforms and this will extend their molecular imaging capability to the sub cellular level. This combination will drive the new molecular imaging utility for the next generation of pre-clinical imaging with the Vevo platform, the company said.

"Seno's pre-clinical opto-acoustic platform technology will enable researchers to non-invasively detect and monitor biological structures, functions and processes at the cellular and molecular level as well as potentially provide the ability to monitor and quantify hypoxia [oxygenated vs. deoxygenated tissue or cells], and to reveal information on tumor development, disease progression and inflammation processes that were previously unattainable," said Janet Campbell, chairman/CEO of Seno.

Seno is a device developer focused on the early detection of cancer thru the use of its opto-acoustic technology. VisualSonics develops high-resolution, ultrasound-based, in vivo micro-imaging systems designed specifically for non-invasive preclinical research.

• ACIST Medical Systems (Eden Prairie, Minnesota), a provider of contrast delivery systems for diagnostic and therapeutic imaging in cardiology and radiology, and Novation (Irving, Texas), a contracting services company serving members of VHA, the University HealthSystem Consortium, and Provista, reported the inclusion of the ACIST CVi contrast delivery system into the companies' previously established product purchasing agreement with E-Z-EM, acquired by ACIST in April.

The addition of the ACIST CVi injection system to the array of ACIST Medical Systems products already carried by Novation, broadens the product offering into both cardiology and radiology creating greater opportunity for institutions to gain purchasing efficiencies from a single technology provider, according to the companies.