Discovery Life Sciences Acquires Targos To Create Market-Leading Global Tissue Biomarker Services
DISCOVERY EXPANDS CAPABILITIES WITH ADDITION OF LEADING EUROPEAN SERVICE PROVIDER TO SUPPORT TISSUE BIOMARKER PROGRAMS FOR RESEARCH, CLINICAL DEVELOPMENT, AND PRODUCT LAUNCH
HUNTSVILLE, Ala., May 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Discovery Life Sciences™ (Discovery), the biospecimen and biomarker specialists™, announced today that it has acquired Targos Molecular Pathology GmbH, Germany (Targos), one of the largest molecular pathology laboratories in Europe, to significantly expand its global tissue biomarker services. Targos represents another milestone in Discovery's global expansion and complements its prior acquisition of Santa Barbara, Calif.-based QualTek Molecular Laboratories (QualTek), a leading North American immunohistochemistry (IHC) and biomarker development provider. Combining the strengths of these two businesses into one global tissue biomarker services division establishes Discovery as a market-leading global service provider for biomarker development, clinical trial support, and in-market clinical pathology training in the fields of immunotherapy, companion diagnostic and other precision medicine programs.
For more than 15 years, Targos has delivered highly standardized development and application of clinical biomarkers for the international pharmaceutical and diagnostic industries, and has helped to approve many breakthrough therapies and companion diagnostics. The company will rapidly integrate and standardize its operations with Discovery's North American IHC and pathology laboratories into a single global scientific team. The team's combined expertise has been instrumental in identifying and developing several breakthroughs in biomarker research including the HER-2 and PDL-1 assays. Discovery's new global IHC and pathology service also will access HudsonAlpha Discovery®, the company's sequencing and bioinformatics division, to create a unique combination of pathology, IHC, and genetic analytical services to advance biomarker-driven drug and diagnostic research and development.
When new therapies enter either regional or global clinical trials, Discovery's CLIA-certified, CAP-accredited global tissue biomarker service laboratories can provide full support at scale and with confidence. Targos is also the leader in global consulting and training of newly launched companion diagnostic assays, supporting its customers' need for rapid education and adoption by the global clinical pathologists and technologists in the field.
"The addition of Targos immediately expands Discovery's capabilities on a global scale to support our customers' tissue biomarker programs for every stage of research ─ from assay development to assay validation, global clinical trials to pathologist training for post-market adoption into clinical routine," said Christiaan Neeleman, president of Discovery's European Operations and divisional head of Discovery's Global Tissue Biomarker Services Operations.
"We are very excited to join the Discovery Life Sciences team," said Thomas Henkel, chief executive officer & co-founder of Targos. "We look forward to combining our capabilities as part of Discovery's Global Tissue Biomarker Services to offer our joint customers an unprecedented bandwidth and quality in biomarker research and development. The combination of pre-annotated study cohorts and tailored biomarker-driven prospective studies under one roof will advance precision medicine programs for the benefit of patients."
About Discovery Life Sciences and HudsonAlpha Discovery
Discovery Life Sciences is the biospecimen and biomarker specialists™, combining the world's largest commercial biospecimen inventory and procurement network with preeminent multi-omic biomarker service laboratories to accelerate precision medicine programs for cancer, infectious disease, and other complex conditions.
HudsonAlpha Discovery is Discovery's sequencing and bioinformatics division, a globally recognized service laboratory that leverages the most current genomic research technologies to comprehensively support discovery, translational, and clinical research.
Driven by science, the Discovery team engages with customers in an innovative, consultative approach to overcoming obstacles and reaching a faster end result. We are Science at your Service™! For more information, visit dls.com.
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