Lab21 acquires Myconostica
Expands growing proprietary diagnostic portfolio
Lab21 Limited, a UK specialist in personalised medicine and clinical diagnostics, has acquired Myconostica, a molecular diagnostic company based in Manchester that focuses on the diagnosis of fungal infections, for an undisclosed sum.
The transaction expands Lab21’s growing diagnostic portfolio and will provide the company’s first set of nucleic acid-based assays. It will also provide manufacturing capabilities for Lab21 from which it will develop and produce a range of new biomarker assays.
In addition to developing global sales of Myconostica products, Lab21 will launch the Myconostica fungal testing services from its new reference laboratory in South Carolina, US as well as from its laboratory in Cambridge, UK.
Graham Mullis, chief executive of Lab21, said Myconostica’s products complement Lab21’s infectious diseases portfolio and will ‘help position the company in a large market where there are significant clinical challenges’.
This transaction represents Lab21’s sixth acquisition over the past two years.
Professor David Denning of the University Hospital of South Manchester, founder and chief medical officer of Myconostica, said: ‘We have developed fast and sensitive molecular diagnostics for life threatening fungal infections such as aspergillosis and pneumocystis pneumonia, that will transform patient care for these infections. Fungal infections are frequently under-diagnosed using current diagnostic methods and are much more common than realised.’
Myconostica has three CE-marked products on the market in Europe, Canada and Southern Africa, which were launched in 2010, and run on a range of testing platforms.
