Leica Biosystems acquires Kreatech Diagnostics

WETZLAR, Germany—Early July brought the news that LeicaBiosystems had acquired Amsterdam, The Netherlands-based Kreatech Diagnostics,a privately held provider of DNA fluorescent in-situ hybridization (FISH) probes and target labelingreagents for microarrays.

Kreatech will join Leica Biosystems' Advanced Stainingbusiness unit based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the United Kingdom, and thecombined business will develop targeted biomarker menus for Leica's instrumentplatforms. Leica Biosystems provides the ThermoBrite and BOND systems that arewidely used to label tissue specimens for diagnostic interpretation incytogenetics and pathology laboratories globally.

Expressing pleasure at the acquisition and predictingthe addition of the company will help Leica Biosystems to better serve itscytogenetics and anatomic pathology customers, company president Dr. MatthiasG. Weber also makes note of Kreatech's "extensive portfolio and developmentexpertise" that will "enable us to actively support the future development ofpersonalized medicine by research and drug development companies."

"By standardizing and supporting the interpretation ofresults with our Aperio ePathology imaging solutions," he adds, "we willprovide our customers with the ability to effectively and efficiently manageever more complex diagnostic requirements."

Kreatech's CEO, Kees Moonen, describes Leica Biosystemsas "a very natural fit to take Kreatech to the next stage," adding that "Leicawill bring global brand recognition, worldwide commercial reach, extensivecytogenetics and histology portfolios and the automation of diagnostic tests onwell-established systems. This will tremendously increase the number ofcustomers that can benefit from Kreatech's superior solutions."

The acquisition of Kreatech Diagnostics marks thesecond one for Leica in July. The other was outside of Europe, in Brazil, andwas announced the same day as the Kreatech acquisition. In that deal, LeicaBiosystems and Leica Microsystems acquired all shares of Aotec InstrumentosCientificos Ltd. of São Paulo, Brazil, in a move Leica said "cemented ties"with the Brazilian Leica distributor.

Aotec is a provider of microscopy and histopathologysolutions and has been a Leica distributor for more than 25 years, andreportedly all Aotec associates will remain with Aotec subsequent to the acquisition.Additionally, the company is actively hiring additional staff to enlarge theBrazilian teams, and thus Leica Microsystems and Leica Biosystems say they havestrengthened their market position significantly.

"Brazil is a very important market. Through thisacquisition, we are developing our business further and invest into the serviceto our customers," said Dr. Jürgen Kress, senior sales director for high-growthmarkets at Leica Biosystems.

The current management teams will work on the integrationof the businesses and operate from the existing headquarters in Sao Paulo.