Takeover aligns with firm’s strategy to add biotherapeutic monitoring tests to IVD portfolio.

French diagnostics and theranostics firm Theradiag (previously Biomedical Diagnostics [BMD]) acquired Prestizia to take over the latter’s microRNA-based diagnostics platform. Theradiag took on its new name last month, to reflect its drive to develop theranostic (personalized medicine) assays for monitoring the effects of biotherapeutics. Last year the firm received CE mark certification for its Lisa Tracker kits for monitoring patients receiving anti-TNF treatment.

Prestizia holds an exclusive license to a technology for characterizing HIV cell tropism based on the identification of microRNA signatures. The firm maintains that the technology, originally developed at the Institute of Molecular Genetics of Monotpellier (IGMM), could have widespread clinical applications including identifying patients eligible for particular anti-HIV treatments or for differentiating different cancer types. Its first molecular biology test, in the final stages of development in collaboration with IGMM, is an HIV tropism test designed to determine whether patients are eligible for certain types of anti-HIV treatment based on the strain of HIV infection.

Theradiag says acquisition of Prestizia will provide a valuable technology for developing theranostic tests for diseases including cancer and autoimmune disorders. The firm already has 25 years of experience in the autoimmune disorder IVD market, and markets a wide range of diagnostic instruments, kits, and tools. 

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