MA-based Nova Biomedical and its blood analyzers and handheld meter-and-strip systems will be purchased by osmometer and bioprocessing expert Advanced Instruments. The reported $2.2 billion-dollar deal will be funded by its parent company.
Nova Biomedical has earned a rep in IVD as largest of the solo private companies. They are a top competitor in critical glucose and blood gas testing, with instruments of good reputation. [from what the author has heard and seen in some user surveys]. The company will keep its name on the products. Smart move. Name changes in IVD only confuse strained laboratory staff, and new names take years to get traction.
At approx 4.5x of Nova revenues, the buy reflects the known quality of the systems and decent growth. Over the past 10 years, pro forma organic sales growth (of both companies) has averaged approximately 8 percent and Nova is the larger. (Nova is privately-held and will remain so after the merger).
The company will keep the Nova Biomedical name on the products. Smart move, we think.
“Following the closing of the transaction, Advanced Instruments and Nova Biomedical will merge, creating a global life science tools platform that will operate under the Nova Biomedical name, with a diversified portfolio of analytical instruments, reagents and services. Byron Selman, President & CEO of Advanced Instruments, will lead the combined business, while Nova Biomedical founding shareholders Frank Manganaro, CEO and Dr. Chung-Chang Young, EVP of R&D, will stay with the company in a consulting capacity.”
TB Testing: Threatened by D.C. Cuts?
As reported in www.360dx.com (behind a firewall but worth their firewall if you can). The Trump administration’s decision to slash funding include 170+ million in support for TB programs Over half of TB support may come from USAID, and this could be in danger with recent cuts. This uncertainty over which programs will continue and which will be cut is further exacerbating concerns in the TB research and funding community.
This has IVD market impact as well as global health impact. Many vendors produce TB tests Qiagen’s QuantiFeron latent tuberculosis test, for instance, grew 11% in sales in 2024, per the company’s most recent earnings.
However TB is, sadly, no longer an international market alone. Domestically, TB rates in the US have increased. Over 10,000 new cases were reported, with Kansas specifically seeing a highly-publicized outbreak.
In addition to test funding, research on TB tests could suffer from NIH cuts.
New bioMérieux Compact AST System
bioMérieux announced U.S. FDA 510(k) clearance for its VITEK® COMPACT PRO , an advanced system for microorganism identification (ID) and antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) . This next-generation platform builds on the company’s long-standing VITEK® 2 COMPACT, with enhanced ergonomics , simplified workflows , and faster results , designed to improve diagnostic accuracy and efficiency in both clinical and industrial labs.
The new system is tailored for small to medium-sized labs , including those transitioning from manual to automated processes. Some competitors in the smaller AST area are: BD Phoenix™ M50. Like COMPACT PRO, it performs automated identification (ID) and antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) of bacteria. MicroScan WalkAway 40 Plus is also a smaller-footprint option in the company’s WalkAway series.
The company says “Every year 11 million people worldwide die of sepsis and 1.3 million of these deaths are attributable to antibiotic-resistant bacteria. AMR continues unabated making detection of resistant pathogens more complex. VITEK® COMPACT PRO improves overall efficiency as the laboratory technician has to spend less time on sample loading and processing.”
