GE Healthcare has purchased a nucleic acid sequencing and other genomic services provider, SeqWright.
The acquisition adds complementary genomic capabilities to Clarient, a unit of GE Healthcare, and also provides a platform to expand its clinical diagnostic offerings to include next generation sequencing.
Clarient CEO Carrie Eglinton-Manner said sequencing, including next-generation DNA sequencing, is an important technology for GE’s medical diagnostics business.
"The acquisition of a specialized laboratory with long-standing expertise in the sequencing field as well as an established customer base allows us immediate entry into this high-growth space, and is an ideal complement to Clarient’s existing protein and gene expression profiling in support of pharmaceutical and in vitro diagnostic studies," Eglinton-Manner added.
SeqWright president and CEO Fei Lu said as a CLIA-certified service provider, the company is in a position to capitalize on the growing role next- and third -generation DNA sequencing technologies will play in clinical diagnostics.
"This partnership will put us in a position to apply the power of new direct detection technologies to clinical and companion diagnostics, potentially revolutionizing the way healthcare decisions are made," Lu added.