Meridian acquires GenePOC assets

LAUSANNE, Switzerland—Debiopharm announced today that the company has reached an agreement with Meridian Bioscience, Inc. for Meridian to acquire Debiopharm’s Canadian affiliate GenePOC’s molecular diagnostics business portfolio. This decision was in made response to the need to identify a partner with a solid commercialization capacity, in order to quickly offer the benefit of GenePOC’s rapid, high-quality diagnostics testing to patients, supporting diagnosis and guidance towards targeted therapeutic decisions for infectious diseases.

Debiopharm became the major shareholder of GenePOC in 2016. Over years of collaboration, ongoing clinical development led to a number of achievements, including FDA approval and European CE marking of the revogene device and 3 rapid molecular assays for Group A and B Streptococcus, along with the Clostridium difficile test. Recently, the Carba assay also received CE mark certification. With these approved assays and a strong pipeline, GenePOC has become a key player in the development of rapid diagnostic tools.

“When we integrated GenePOC into Debiopharm, the main objective was to quickly bring their instrument and diagnostic tests to market approval. As antibiotic resistance is a major public health issue, it has become urgent to offer patients rapid diagnostic tools to guide therapies targeting the precise pathogen. Meridian’s extensive commercial infrastructure and their undisputed experience make it an ideal partner for GenePOC,” said Thierry Mauvernay, president of Debiopharm. “After nearly 4 years of collaboration, it is difficult to part ways, but we are happy to have successfully achieved our objectives together. I am deeply grateful to the entire team for their ongoing commitment.”

Meridian Bioscience has an extensive history in both the laboratory diagnostics and life sciences markets. Meridian develops, manufactures, markets and distributes a broad range of innovative diagnostic test kits, purified reagents and biopharmaceutical enabling technologies. With an extensive commercial infrastructure and experienced sales force in the U.S., Europe and other major markets, the company targets hospitals, specialized laboratories, research centers, diagnostic manufacturers and companies with its broad offering.

“We are very excited to be adding the GenePOC technology and team to Meridian. GenePOC provides an exciting, new state-of-the-art molecular diagnostics platform to our Diagnostics portfolio. This is a critical element of our strategy to re-position our diagnostics business for sustainable long-term growth. GenePOC’s revogene platform is an excellent fit for our customers and strategy to offer gastrointestinal-focused and other targeted diagnostic solutions to meet the diverse needs of today’s more complex health care system.  We welcome the GenePOC team to the Meridian family and look forward to continuing our very good relationship with Debiopharm into the future,” added Jack Kenny, chief executive officer, Meridian.