Monday, March 7, 2011

RainDance forms deals with Ambry Genetics, Roche Group

By Rodney H. Brown

Lexington-based biotech RainDance Technologies Inc., just months after closing on a large financing round, has landed a pair of deals for its microdroplet-based tools to be used in genetic screening systems, one with California-based Ambry Genetics and the second with a division of Roche Group.

RainDance did not release financial details for either deal. Both of them involve developing a new sequencing platform for “simple and cost-effective investigation of drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME).” The intent is to be able to identify adverse drug reactions to reduce the instances and the cost of hospitalization associated with such events, officials said.

The Roche division 454 Life Sciences of Branford, Conn., is teaming up with RainDance on the new screening panels, which are intended to be much more sensitive than existing screening products, according to officials. Both partnerships will use RainDance’s RainStorm technology, which generates millions of discrete droplets that can encapsulate a single molecule, cell or reaction and be digitally analyzed and sorted one at a time.

It was in January that RainDance closed on a $37.5 million Series D financing round, co-led by new investor Quaker BioVentures, of Philadelphia, and existing investor Mohr Davidow Ventures of Menlo Park, Calif. Existing investors Alloy Ventures of Palo Alto, Calif., and New York-based Acadia Woods Partners LLC also participated in that round.

In February of 2010, RainDance named Sirshendu Roopom Banerjee its new president and CEO, replacing Christopher McNary, who had held the position since November 2007, and who took on the role of chief commercial officer.