Company Announcements

Half-year sales for Abcam rose 7.7%, 13.8% in constant currency, to £66.7 million ($107.6 million) (see IBO 3/31/15). Product sales grew 10.4%, 16.7% excluding currency, to £62.7 million ($101.2 million). Sales of core and RabMAb primary antibodies grew 13.3% and 19.4% excluding currency to make up 68% and 15% of Product revenue, respectively. Nonprimary antibody product sales grew 29.3% excluding currency to account for 17%. The three product categories grew double digits across each geographic region. Chinese sales grew 67.2%. Total adjusted operating income advanced 3.5% to £23.6 million ($38.1 million).

Under a March collaboration agreement, Amyris’s automated lab services will be integrated with Genome Compiler’s online design tools and e-commerce platform.

ToolGen licensed its CRISPR/Cas9 intellectual property portfolio to Thermo Fisher Scientific. The license covers research applications, including the development and sale of reagents, cell lines and animal models, as well as rights for high-throughput screening, diagnostics and bioproduction.

Accellta granted exclusive rights to STEMCELL Technologies for manufacturing and distributing medium for culturing pluripotent stem cells in suspension under feeder-free, nonadherent conditions.

In April, Oxford Gene Technology (OGT) licensed access to data from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute’s Deciphering Development Disorders study. OGT plans to use the study to develop its CytoSure Constitutional v3 range, which will identify SNPs and CNVs.

Caribou Biosciences closed an $11 million Series A financing round. Investors include Novartis and an undisclosed strategic partner.

Under a collaboration agreement, Genome Compiler will integrate Addgene’s repository of plasmids into its advanced design tools and marketplace platform.

Affymetrix announced a collaboration with EverGene (EG), an MTI subsidiary, for genetic research and personal genomics services in Japan. EG launched the DearGene Starter Kit service for consumers, which is based on Affymetrix’s Axiom genotyping platform.

Product Introductions

Nodality launched in January the PathPro product line of predefined multiparametric flow cytometry–based experimental panels.

In March, Randox Food Diagnostics introduced a new glycerol kit for wine samples.

According to a March SEC filing, Lucigen raised $2.2 million as part of an equity offering.

Promega launched the new Nano-Glo Dual-Luciferase Reporter Assay for measuring NanoLuc and firefly luciferases together. Either or both can be used as dynamic reporters.