Mobidiag, Genewave and Amplidiag merge to become leading innovator in molecular diagnostics

HELSINKI, Finland & PARIS—MobidiagOy/Ltd., Genewave SAS and Amplidiag Oy have announced a definitiveagreement to combine the three companies, with a goal of creating "a technology leaderin molecular diagnostics for infectious diseases."

The merged company will retain the name Mobidiag and will combine Amplidiag's and the original Mobidiag's high-multiplex proprietarydiagnostic test portfolios with Genewave's automated and integrated testplatform.

The merger was accompanied by a financing round by existinginvestors Helsinki University Fund, iXLife, Tutor Invest (MedtechRahasto Ky), and others, as well as public funding support from theFinnish funding agencies Tekes and Finnvera and the European Union.

Mobidiag's new CEO is Tuomas Tenkanen, the former R&D Director ofthe diagnostics PCR products provider, Finnzymes Oy, which was acquiredby Thermo Fisher Scientific.

"Thefusion of these three complementary companies creates a uniqueopportunity to bring forward the next generation of infectious diseasediagnostics to dramatically improve global health care," the new CEO said in a news release about the merger.

Thetransaction is structured as a share exchange, upon which Genewave andAmplidiag became subsidiaries of Mobidiag Oy/Ltd. The new company isheadquartered in Helsinki, with a center of excellence in Paris, and, reportedly, "nowhas the diagnostic test pipeline, integrated test platform, leadership,infrastructure and financial resources to develop and bring tocommercialization its automated instrument and panel of diagnostictests, capable of identifying a large number of pathogens from a singlepatient sample"

Genewavespecializes in the development, manufacturing and marketing ofmicroarray instrumentation for diagnostic, clinical andlife-science research, with a signature product being the GeneSpress system, anautomated and integrated platform for highly multiplexed moleculardiagnostic tests. The compact system integrates DNA purification, PCRamplification and microarray hybridization and detection into anautomated workflow on a single, closed lab-on-chip cartridge. Amongother features, the platform incorporates Genewave's patentedTouchArray optical detection technology for highly sensitive imagingof microarrays.

Mobidiag'sclinically proven, CE-IVD marked Prove-it diagnostic tests enable as many as 84 pathogens and antibiotic resistance markers to be detected in asingle assay, representing what the company calls "cutting-edge multiplexing capabilities."Current test products are intended for diagnosing bacterial and fungalsepsis, viral central nervous system infections and bacterial bone andjoint infections. Mobidiag has built a reference customer base with itscurrent test portfolio and has generated market acceptance in Europe.The automation of Mobidiag's tests is expected to answer the need of clinicallaboratories for automated and integrated solutions for diagnostictesting of severe infectious diseases.

Amplidiagprovides a broad panel of diagnostic tests for infectious diseases and brings substantial intellectual property in the realm of testing andnucleic acid extraction methods for contagious gastrointestinal andother serious diseases.