Diagnostic Deals: A Roundup of the Key Mergers, Acquisitions, Alliances, Licenses and Other Strategic Transactions From the Past Month

Spring has sprung with the announcement of a king-size deal: Danaher's $21.4 billion cash acquisition of GE Life Sciences, known as GE Biopharma, from General Electric Company (GE). Here's a quick overview of the transaction and the rest of the past month's activity (from late February to late March).

M&A
Danaher's binding agreement to acquire GE Biopharma is the biggest M&A deal in the diagnostics space in over a year. The acquired business will operate as a standalone company within Danaher's $6.5 billion Life Sciences segment. Other companies in the unit include Pall, Beckman Coulter Life Sciences, SCIEX, Leica Microsystems, Molecular Devices, and Phenomenex, along with IDT businesses. According to Danaher CEO Thomas P. Joyce, Jr., "GE Biopharma is renowned for providing best-in-class bioprocessing technologies and solutions. This acquisition will bring a talented and passionate team as well as a highly innovative, industry-leading product suite to our Life Sciences portfolio, providing an excellent complement to our current biologics workflow solutions."

Unloading GE Biopharma is part of a larger, ongoing restructuring plan by GE that has it exiting several sectors in order to focus on three core segments: aviation, power, and renewable energy. Assuming regulatory approval, the transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

Other noteworthy M&A deals during the period include cancer fighting firm Oncimmune's acquisition of Protagen Diagnostics, a leader in personalized immune-profiling, for up to $5.5 million and Grifols' acquisition of a 26.2% stake in Shanghai RAAS as part of a strategic alliance to manufacture, market, and develop plasma products and transfusion diagnostic solutions in the Chinese market.

Strategic Alliances
Among new alliances are several involving companies based in China. Natera, a genetic-testing company in San Carlos, Calif., has entered into a 10-year partnership agreement with China's BGI Group, known as BGI Genomics, which operates a genomic sequencing center. The agreement will commercialize Natera's circulating tumor DNA Signatera minimal residual disease (MRD) test in China. Details about this and other agreements are provided in the chart below.

In addition to these alliances is one of note not included in the chart, because it is about the end of an agreement. Epigenomics, a molecular diagnostic company headquartered in Germany, has terminated its collaboration with China's BioChain for the licensing of the Septin9 marker and exclusive Chinese distribution rights for Epi proColon, Epigenomics' blood test for colorectal cancer. The companies entered into the licensing deal in March 2016. Epigenomics is exercising its right to terminate the agreement, based on the fact that BioChain has not paid more than the agreed minimum royalties over a three-year period.

Here's a summary of key diagnostic deals from late February through late March: