Eurofins Acquires Boston Heart Diagnostics For $140M
By Jof Enriquez,
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Eurofins Scientific, a bioanalytical and genomics testing company based in Luxembourg, recently announced its acquisition of Boston Heart Diagnostics for $140 million. The deal also includes an additional $60 million in unspecified milestone payments.
According to a statement issued recently, Eurofins said that Boston Heart will become a wholly owned subsidiary and retain its nearly 350 employees. The transaction is expected to be completed in 60 days, pending customary closing conditions. The deal will reportedly strengthen Eurofins’ specialty clinical diagnostics business following its recent purchase of Vira-Cor-IBT (VIBT) earlier this year.
“Boston Heart provides Eurofins a strong entry in the specialized cardiology diagnostic segment,” Dr. Gilles Martin, Eurofins CEO, said in the statement. “In combination with VIBT, this gives Eurofins an excellent position in two important segments of the specialty diagnostic testing market, thereby significantly enhancing our overall capabilities focusing on preventing life-threatening diseases. With a significant portion of its revenues from genetic testing, Boston Heart also expands Eurofins' genomics capabilities with a promising selection of patient-focused tests and our offering of proprietary tests to our clients in the pharmaceutical industry.”
Boston Heart has developed proprietary tests to determine the cardiovascular risk of patients. Doctors can use these diagnostics as a basis for personalized treatment plans and/or lifestyle modification programs. According to Boston Heart’s website, the company’s HDL Map and Cholesterol Balance lab tests have been performed on over 140,000 heart patients, while its Statin Induced Myopathy (SLCO1B1) Genotype test has been validated in clinical trials involving 15,000 patients.
Eurofins added in its statement that it has conducted due diligence prior to the transaction, particularly concerning Boston Heart’s involvement in an ongoing probe being conducted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice. As noted in a Boston Globe article, Boston Heart said it was “fully cooperating” with investigators who are determining if diagnostic companies made improper payments to doctors in exchange for providing blood samples from patients for certain lab tests.
Personalized medicine has spurred the growth of acquisitions and partnerships in the healthcare sector. Late last year, Siemens and Pfizer announced an agreement to develop diagnostic tests for targeted therapies. In March, Ventana and Bayer extended their collaboration to develop companion diagnostics for cancer patients. Recently, QIAGEN and Novartis signed a partnership to commercialize diagnostics for Novartis’ portfolio of drugs.