Thermo Fisher Scientific to acquire Mesa Biotech, gaining COVID-19 testing platform Thermo Fisher Scientific will acquire San Diego molecular diagnostics company Mesa Biotech for approximately $450m in cash, with up to an additional $100m upon completion of certain milestones.
Privately held Mesa Biotech has developed and commercialized a PCR-based rapid point-of-care testing platform available for detecting infectious diseases including SARS-CoV-2, Influenza A and B, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and Strep A. Its patented technology expands the availability of high standard nucleic acid PCR amplification to point-of-care diagnostics.
Mesa Biotech s Accula Flu A/Flu B, RSV and Strep A tests have obtained 510(k) clearance and Clinical Laboratory Improvements Amendments (CLIA) waivers from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The European Commission has set out steps to ramp up production of COVID-19 vaccines; tackle issues in the supply chain; and boost vaccination campaigns.
At the end of December, the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) updated its advice on the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine: saying that those with unrelated allergies could receive it. But this announcement did not receive as much coverage as the MHRA’s earlier pause on vaccination in people with allergies.
The growing global pipeline of cell and gene therapy projects has prompted Thermo Fisher Scientific to invest again, with it announcing today that it had bought Henogen, Novasep’s viral vector manufacturing business based in Belgium, for about US$879.72m (€725m) in cash.
Pfizer is investing US$25m in a US developer of live biotherapeutics, Vedanta Biosciences; that project is one of four investments, totaling US$120m, made by Pfizer in the second half of 2020 under its breakthrough growth program focused on clinical stage biotech companies of potential future strategic interest to the pharma giant.