A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

Invitrogen (Carlsbad, California) said it has acquired Quantum Dot (Hayward, California) and the BioPixels business unit of BioCrystal (both Westerville, Ohio). It also reported the early closing of the $130 million Biosource International (Camarillo, California) acquisition first disclosed in July (Diagnostics & Imaging Week, July 28, 2005).

The company said that the acquisition of Quantum Dots and BioPixels bolster Invitrogen’s Molecular Probes business as the leader in advanced labeling and detection technologies.

Invitrogen also reported an agreement with Georgia Tech Research Corporation (Atlanta) to exclusively license nanocluster technology.

Taken together, the combination of these acquisitions and licenses will enable Invitrogen to create new products that it said enable life science researchers to better visualize and understand cellular processes, molecular interactions, and other factors essential to diagnosing and treating disease.

Terms of the acquisitions and license were not disclosed.

“The ability to illuminate biological processes taking place, such as whether a defect in the function of a heart cell is causing a patient’s heart disease, is becoming a preferred method for molecular research and diagnostic applications,” said Gregory Lucier, chairman and CEO of Invitrogen.

He added: “By adding advanced nanotechnology capabilities to our existing labeling and detection franchise, Invitrogen has positioned itself at the cutting edge of this exciting field, providing innovative solutions for use by our customers and in our own research and development of novel technologies in proteomics, genomics, gene expression, and imaging.”

The company said the Biosource acquisition augments its growing collection of protein and primary antibody products gained through its acquisitions of Zymed Laboratories (South San Francisco, California) and Caltag Laboratories (Burlingame, California) earlier this year. Additionally, Biosource bolsters Invitrogen’s offerings in both kinase and cyto-kine assay technologies for research applications and provides the company an opportunity to enter new markets in immunology, oncology and neurodegenerative disease.

These latest acquisitions are part of a long string this year by the highly acquisitive Invitrogen.

The company bought antibody manufacturer Zymed in January for $60 million in cash. In April it completed its purchase of molecular separation and purification technologies developer Dynal Biotech (Oslo, Norway) from Nordic Capital (Stockholm, Sweden) and a co-investor, for about $391 million. And in May, it signed an agreement to acquire privately held immunological assay manufacturer Caltag Laboratories in a cash transaction totaling $20 million.

The financial impact of the acquisition of Quantum Dot and BioPixels, as well as the early closing of BioSource International will be discussed on the company’s 3Q05 earnings call on Oct 27, it said.

Beckman Coulter (Fullerton, California) said it has signed an agreement to acquire all of the stock of Diagnostic Systems Laboratories (DSL; Webster, Texas), a provider of specialty immunoassays, including technology for reproductive endocrinology and cardiovascular risk assessment.

Subject to customary closing conditions, the acquisition is expected to close in mid-October.

The company said the acquisition is presently estimated to be 1 cent dilutive to Beckman Coulter’s 4Q05 earnings per share and 6 cents dilutive in 2006, becoming accretive to earnings in 4Q06.

“Coupling DSL’s expertise and proprietary tests with Beckman Coulter’s industry leading immunoassay platforms should be a winning combination,” said Michael Whelan, group vice president of Beckman Coulter’s immunoassay business. “DSL is a mature organization with significant scientific and clinical collaboration skills. Together we aim to quickly broaden our immunoassay menu and strategically advance our already successful immunoassay franchise.”

With 2004 sales of about $34 million, DSL competes in the specialty endocrinology segment of the immunoassay market. It markets three reproductive endocrinology tests, including Inhibin A and B, and anti-Mullerian hormone. In addition, DSL holds exclusive rights to PAPP-A, a marker being evaluated for cardiovascular risk assessment.

PerkinElmer (Wellesley, Massachusetts) reported its intention to divest its Fluid Sciences business segment to increase, it said, strategic focus on its higher-growth Health Sciences and Photonic markets.

As part of the divestiture process, the company has signed a definitive agreement to sell its aerospace business to Eaton (Cleveland) for about $333 million, subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions.

The company also reported that it is in discussions to sell its semiconductor and fluid-testing businesses.

All of the planned divestitures are expected to be completed in 4Q05, with aggregate proceeds of about $400 million from the sale of the Fluid Sciences business segment.

“The divestiture of our Fluid Sciences business segment will allow us to better focus our leadership and financial resources on our most promising growth opportunities,” said Gregory Summe, chairman and CEO of PerkinElmer. “The proceeds will help us build our growth platforms, with particular emphasis on genetic screening, medical imaging, molecular medicine and service.”

He added: “While expected to be modestly dilutive, about 5%-7% in 2006, the divestitures should reduce our exposure to more cyclical markets and position PerkinElmer to deliver higher revenue and EPS growth.”

While Summe noted that the Fluid Sciences unit was an “excellent business,” he said it does not fit with the company’s long-term strategy.