PerkinElmer Acquires Vanadis Diagnostics

PerkinElmer Inc. has completed the acquisition of Vanadis Diagnostics AB. Based in Sweden, Vanadis is developing a novel solution for non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) based on digital analysis of cell-free DNA.

The acquisition is expected to build upon PerkinElmer’s maternal fetal health offerings, which provide customers a full portfolio of traditional serum screening solutions. The Vanadis platform will enable PerkinElmer to offer a simplified, cost-effective, high-throughput approach to NIPT to help facilitate wider access for pregnant women.

Many traditional biochemistry prenatal testing labs have encountered challenges in successfully implementing NIPT due to the complexity of the tests. This has led to limited acceptance of the existing NIPT technology, which has been adopted mainly by genetic laboratories. The Vanadis offering is based on digital DNA analysis and is designed to provide automated testing for routine use by high-throughput biochemistry labs as well as genetic labs.

“While NIPT is becoming increasingly recognized as valuable to many high-risk expectant parents during the first trimester, test complexity and pricing issues have limited the ability of many biochemistry labs to effectively offer this type of prenatal screening,” said Prahlad Singh, president of Diagnostics for PerkinElmer. “High capital investment, advanced molecular skills, and complex data handling for lab staff, along with the difficulty of integrating these systems into the existing screening infrastructure, have been barriers to more widespread adoption of NIPT. Vanadis’ simplified NIPT platform, once available, should help overcome these obstacles, giving labs a wider range of prenatal testing capabilities and providing important information to physicians and patients.”

Adding Vanadis’ capabilities to PerkinElmer’s extensive diagnostics portfolio is intended to contribute to better health outcomes through improved detection of fetal chromosomal abnormalities, executives said. PerkinElmer’s diagnostic offerings include: prenatal, neonatal and infectious disease screening, along with molecular diagnostics solutions, through its wide range of instruments, reagents and assay platforms, and software. The company also provides private cord blood and cord tissue preservation to families through ViaCord LLC.

“We founded Vanadis with the mission to make NIPT available to all women, and we developed this technology to fundamentally change the cost structure and workflow for NIPT,” said Olle Ericsson, CEO of Vanadis Diagnostics. “We are confident that with its leading position in prenatal screening, PerkinElmer is best situated to bring this system to market and address the under-served segment of average-risk pregnancies.”

PerkinElmer is a multinational corporation focused in the business areas of human and environmental health, including environmental analysis, food and consumer product safety, medical imaging, drug discovery, diagnostics, biotechnology, industrial applications, and life science research. PerkinElmer produces analytical instruments, genetic testing and diagnostic tools, medical imaging components, software, instruments, and consumables for multiple end markets. The company reported revenue of approximately $2.2 billion in 2014, and has approximately 8,000 employees serving customers in more than 150 countries.