Franklin Lakes-based BD on Tuesday announced it acquired Cytognos as a way to accelerate its strategy to support chronic disease management. The partnership expands BD’s portfolio of blood cancer diagnostics, immune assessment tests and informatics to address patient, clinician and care provider needs to better understand the immune system, immune response and minimal residual disease.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The Spain-based Cytognos specializes in flow cytometry solutions for blood cancer diagnosis, MRD detection and immune monitoring research for blood diseases.
By monitoring for MRD, lab managers and physicians can detect low levels of cancer cells following treatment that alerts them if the disease is still present or if there is a signal of recurrence. This is a key element of the patient care continuum that helps clinicians and physicians recognize when cancer recurs and aids in the timely treatment of patients.
“As the understanding and treatment of cancer evolves and improves, the importance of monitoring postremission cancer survivors has become paramount to improve patient outcomes,” said Puneet Sarin, worldwide president of BD Biosciences. “Cytognos’ capabilities are complementary to those already developed by BD scientists to screen for the most common blood cancers and will enable BD to expand beyond cancer discovery and diagnosis into the monitoring phase of the patient’s journey. We’re building on our strong track record of identifying and executing on opportunities and then integrating those new products and businesses into our portfolio.”
With the acquisition of Cytognos, BD gains exclusive access to advanced assays licensed from the EuroFlow Consortium, a scientifically independent network in the fields of hematology and immunology with scientists and researchers from more than 20 European universities and hospitals.
BD, also known as Becton, Dickinson and Co., has existing license agreements with EuroFlow for multiple other assays, and the addition of the Cytognos assays further strengthens BD’s 12-year licensing collaboration with EuroFlow.
Cytognos’ approximately 80 employees will join BD as a result of the acquisition.
Cytognos will continue to be led by its CEO Fernando Martin de Lara, and its results will come under the Biosciences unit of BD’s Life Sciences segment.
