Qiagen Closes Cellestis Acquisition - Analyst Blog
August 30 2011 - 6:00AM
Zacks
Recently, Qiagen
(QGEN) completed the acquisition of Australia-based Cellestis
Limited. Although the deal to acquire Cellestis was announced
initially in April 2011, in July, Qiagen increased the offer price
by 7% to $4.06 (A$3.80) per share.
With this acquisition, Qiagen is
expected to gain access to Cellestis’ proprietary QuantiFERON
technology, an innovative disease diagnostic tool.
QuantiFERON has been commercialized by Cellestis with already
marketed tests and its flagship product QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube
(QFT) for detection of latent tuberculosis (TB). Moreover, another
product, QuantiFERON-CMV test, which is in early stages of
commercialization, monitors the disease risk of life-threatening
CMV virus. This patent-protected platform technology enables quick
detection of the diseases compared to other traditional DNA-based
molecular tests.
Qiagen expects QuantiFERON to
enhance Qiagen's molecular diagnostics portfolio and will also
drive the use of traditional DNA and RNA-based molecular
diagnostics. QuantiFERON is expected to be beneficial for Qiagen’s
current assay portfolio and pipeline while relocating and combining
with products like QIAsymphony, QIAensemble
and other relevant needs.
Strategically, Qiagen is focusing
on expanding its molecular diagnostics product portfolio
(contributing 46% of total sales in second quarter of 2011), which
recorded a 2% year-over-year growth banking on solid growth in
consumables, partly offset by lower instrument sales. However, with
improving trends in the US, sales are expected to increase in the
coming quarters based on higher patient visits to physician
offices. Moreover, Personalized Healthcare is expanding due to
higher companion diagnostic sales in Europe and co-development
projects with pharmaceutical companies.
Moreover, Qiagen is adopting
aggressive acquisition strategy in order to widen its scope and
strengthen its position in the competitive landscape with major
players like Life Technologies (LIFE) and
Sigma-Aldrich (SIAL).
LIFE TECHNOLOGS (LIFE): Free Stock Analysis Report
QIAGEN NV (QGEN): Free Stock Analysis Report
SIGMA ALDRICH (SIAL): Free Stock Analysis Report
Zacks Investment Research
(MM) (NASDAQ:SIAL)
Historical Stock Chart
From May 2024 to Jun 2024
(MM) (NASDAQ:SIAL)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jun 2023 to Jun 2024