GE Healthcare adds to its medical diagnostics business with additional sequencing and next generation technologies.  

In a few years it is entirely conceivable all of one's healthcare from cradle to grave will be supplied by a few providers for technical services.  From the amniocentesis to imaging your broken bones in childhood, to personalizing your colon, breast, lung or colon cancer and then the directed therapy to treat such cancer, could all be provided for by the likes of GE or Roche or another multi-national health services technology and treatment provider with personalized diagnoses, companion diagnostics, imaging and therapy.  

Addition of high growth company builds on Clarient’s biopharma service capabilities and provides platform to offer sequencing-based clinical diagnostics in the future

St Giles,UK – 4 April 2012 – GE Healthcare, a unit of GE (NYSE: GE) announced today that it has acquired SeqWright, Inc., a provider of nucleic acid sequencing and other genomic services.  The acquisition adds complementary genomics capabilities to Clarient, a unit of GE Healthcare and a leader in the fast-growing molecular diagnostics sector. The deal also provides a platform for Clarient to expand its clinical diagnostic offerings to include next generation sequencing. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

“Understanding how genetic variation at the molecular level impacts disease is critical in the continued discovery and development of new and more effective therapies, and increasingly in the management of patient care through the use of more precise diagnostic tests,” said Pascale Witz, President and CEO, GE Healthcare, Medical Diagnostics.  “Combining the expertise and capabilities of the two companies will enable GE Healthcare to offer a substantially wider range of services to the biopharmaceutical, diagnostic and research industries and eventually to patients and health care providers.”

Molecular diagnostics provide precise information about a patient’s disease and can help doctors decide on the best treatment.  The rapid increase in the incidence of cancer worldwide, together with advances in specific cancer-focused therapies, is driving significant demand for molecular diagnostics. 

“As a CLIA-certified service provider, we are in a position to capitalize on the growing role next- and third -generation DNA sequencing technologies will play in clinical diagnostics,” said Fei Lu, President and CEO of SeqWright. “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. 

As biopharma companies continue to develop large portfolios of increasingly targeted therapies, the need for fast, accurate and cost effective sequencing technologies and services to determine the genetic profile of patient samples becomes vital to clinical trials and the development of companion diagnostics.  SeqWright has an extensive history of projects that focus on clinical trial and regulatory support for companion diagnostic submissions. The complementary capabilities of Clarient & SeqWright will allow the combined business to add immediate incremental value to existing pharmaceutical and biotechnology partnerships throughout their drug development and companion diagnostic development efforts. 

“Sequencing, including next-generation DNA sequencing, is an important technology for GE’s medical diagnostics business,” said Carrie Eglinton-Manner, CEO of Clarient.  “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.”

Clarient provides pathologists and oncologists with access to diagnostic tests that shed light on the complex nature of various cancers by combining innovative diagnostic technologies with pathology expertise to assess and characterize cancer.  Clarient is focused on developing novel, proprietary diagnostic markers and tests for the profiling of breast, lung, colon, melanoma and blood-based cancers, to help clinicians make informed decisions on how best to treat their patients.  Given the increasing importance of more targeted cancer diagnostics, Clarient is well positioned to bring differentiated, added-value molecular diagnostic products and services to market.  Since 2007, Clarient’s revenues have grown at an approximate 30 percent compounded annual growth rate.

About GE Healthcare

GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our broad expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies, performance improvement and performance solutions services help our customers to deliver better care to more people around the world at a lower cost. In addition, we partner with healthcare leaders, striving to leverage the global policy change necessary to implement a successful shift to sustainable healthcare systems.

Our "healthymagination" vision for the future invites the world to join us on our journey as we continuously develop innovations focused on reducing costs, increasing access and improving quality around the world. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employees are committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our web site at http://www.gehealthcare.com.

For our latest news, please visit http://newsroom.gehealthcare.com

About SeqWright, Inc. 

Founded in 1994, SeqWright, Inc. is a full-service nucleic acid technology contract research organization focused primarily on traditional and next-generation nucleic acid sequencing.  SeqWright is CLIA certified and GLP compliant, enabling the company to offer services in support of product regulatory submissions.  With over 17 years of genomics experience, SeqWright has built a reputation for quality, technical expertise and a willingness to customize services to meet its customers' individual needs.  The company’s mission is to drive scientific and medical innovation by helping to facilitate and accelerate the research and development efforts of its customers. 

SeqWright is based in Houston, Texas and employs approximately 34 people. For more information, please visit the company’s website at http://www.seqwright.com