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Print Edition StoriesTuesday, November 10, 2009
BioTrove poised for acquisition, new spin-out
By Mass High Tech staff
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Woburn-based biotech BioTrove Inc. has announced plans to be acquired by Carlsbad, Calif.-based Life Technologies Corp., and as a result, BioTrove has also formed a wholly owned subsidiary, Biocius Life Sciences, that will hold its RapidFire Business Unit assets and operate independently of Life Technologies.
Life Technologies (Nasdaq: LIFE), a global biotechnology firm, signed the definitive agreement to buy BioTrove and now awaits closing of the transaction. The West Coast company, formed from the merging of Invitrogen Corp. and Applied Biosystems Inc., develops personalized medicine, molecular diagnostics and regenerative science. BioTrove had a previous relationship, beginning in 2007, with Applied Biosystems, when that company took over the commercialization role of BioTrove’s OpenArray platform for gene expression. The agreement also called for Applied Biosystems to customize its “TaqMan” genotyping tests for BioTrove’s “OpenArray” genomic research platform for the sake of developing a more accurate and more affordable means to perform genotyping studies.
BioTrove’s formation of Biocius Life Sciences will carry over its current scientific and engineering team, including chairman and CEO Jeffrey Leathe, and will have financial backing from BioTrove’s current investors. As of April, BioTrove’s backers included Catalyst Health and Technology Partners, CB Health Ventures, Vox Equity Partners I & II, Echelon Ventures and Fletcher Spaght Inc. BioTrove pulled its December 2008 IPO registration, citing concerns over a poor market.
The RapidFire mass spectrometry platform, BioTrove’s other platform that will now be operated by Biocious, is designed to enable the acceleration of drug discovery and pipeline decisions. The independent company, Biocious Life Sciences, derives its names from the Greek word for “life” (“Bio”) and the Latin word for “faster” (“ocious”).
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