PerkinElmer acquired Haoyuan Biotech, a Shanghai firm that focuses on the development of infectious disease diagnostics. PerkinElmer officials say the acquisition extends the company’s capabilities into nucleic acid blood screening and in molecular clinical diagnostics market in China.

The Haoyuan acquisition adds four infectious disease assays into PerkinElmer’s product portfolio. These infectious disease diagnostics tools include a qualitative 3-in-1 assay for the detection of hepatitis B (HBV), hepatitis C (HCV), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), two clinical quantitative assays that screen for HBV and HCV, and one qualitative assay screen for Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae.

“By combining PerkinElmer’s robust disease screening capabilities with Haoyuan’s proprietary reagents and equipment, the company will be able to offer highly sensitive systems and assays for quality detection of blood-borne infections for the Chinese market,” said Robert Friel, chairman and CEO of PerkinElmer. “Integrating Haoyuan’s screening products with PerkinElmer’s diagnostics capabilities will help to further advance the health of the Chinese people by offering leading technology that ensures accurate diagnosis of infectious diseases at a low cost.”

The acquisition marks the latest move by PerkinElmer to increase its investment in China. Two months ago it set up a new customer knowledge center (CKC), a global software R&D team, and an application development center, based out of the new Shanghai headquarters. The CKC will serve as a demonstration center for PerkinElmer’s instruments targeted for the diagnostics, life sciences, environmental, food, and chemical markets. It will also operate as a customer user training center.

The global R&D group will help accelerate the research and development and time-to-market of both PerkinElmer’s instruments and software, according to the company. At the global application center, chemists and scientists using PerkinElmer instrumentation, software, and consumables, will work on developing application methods and turn-key solutions to address customer needs in the environmental, food safety, and other industrial end-markets specifically for China as well as across the globe.

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