Medical Device Daily

Tethys Bioscience (Emeryville, California) reported that it has acquired Lipomics Technologies (West Sacramento, California). The acquisition was expected to be finalized yesterday upon completion of customary closing conditions. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The acquisition brings together Lipomics' metabolite profiling technology with Tethys' skills in the use of protein biomarkers to create novel tests capable of accurately predicting a person's likelihood of developing chronic diseases. Tethys launched its first such test – the PreDx diabetes risk test – earlier this year, and is working to develop similar tests that will predict a person's likelihood of experiencing an osteoporotic bone fracture or a major cardiac event.

Integration of the Lipomics understanding of lipid biology with the Tethys protein biomarker analysis capability provides the company with state-of-the-art technology as it extends its focus beyond diabetes. With this combination, Tethys said it is now "uniquely positioned to develop unprecedented insights into the biological mechanisms of a host of diseases."

"We believe that the best solutions for predicting and thereby preventing a range of chronic conditions will come from the thoughtful integration of multiple types of biomarkers – including proteins and metabolites," said Mickey Urdea, Tethys' founder, chairman and CEO. "The addition of Lipomics furthers our goal of arming patients and physicians with insights that will help reduce the incidence of preventable chronic diseases," he added.

All 30 employees of Lipomics will become part of Tethys. Steven Watkins, PhD, co-founder, president and CSO of Lipomics, will assume the role of CTO at Tethys. The Lipomics facility will continue its comprehensive and quantitative profiling of lipid metabolites as Tethys West Sacramento.

Tethys is a predictive personalized medicine company developing novel tests which address the growing global healthcare challenge of chronic diseases such as diabetes.

Lipomics provides metabolic assessments for drug research, clinical diagnostics and personalized medicine.