Stock agreement will add point-of-care bladder cancer diagnostic to portfolio.
Inverness Medical Innovations is buying Matritech for $36 million in stock. Additionally, Matritech will receive up to $2 million payable in cash and/or stock dependent on achievement of certain revenue targets in the first year after closing.
Matritech develops protein-based diagnostic products in cancer. The NMP22® BladderChek® Test is a point-of-care test cleared by the FDA for both the diagnosis and monitoring of bladder cancer.
“We are excited about the addition of Matritech’s bladder cancer technology to the Inverness portfolio and look forward to realizing the market opportunities available to us through combining the Matritech products with our global distribution capabilities,” remarks Ron Zwanziger, president and CEO of Inverness.
The BladderChek Test is based on Matritech’s nuclear matrix protein (NMP) technology, which correlates levels of NMPs in body fluids to the presence of cancer. In addition to the NMP22 protein marker, the company reports that it has discovered other proteins associated with cervical, breast, prostate, and colon cancer.
