Deal includes assets, infrastructure, and sales team related to the Olerup SSP line.
LinkMed is taking over distribution rights to Qiagen’s Olerup SSP® product line, which consists of genomic HLA testing products, within the transplantation market. The $1.8 million transaction also includes Qiagen’s Austrian sales company.
As a result, established Olerup International, which was a subsidiary of LinkMed, will now be equally owned by LinkMed and SSP Primers starting July 1. Olerup International is expected to generate revenues of SEK 55 million, or $7.05 million, this year.
Olerup International will start two wholly owned subsidiaries: Olerup GmbH with an office in Wien and Olerup Inc. with an office in West Chester, PA. Olerup Inc. will manage sales in the North American region, and Olerup GmbH will cover sales in all other regions. Olerup Inc. will also take over sales of AbSorber’s cross match test XM-ONE® in North America.
Going forward, Qiagen will focus on the commercialization of its new SBTexcellerator kits from its alliance with Genome Diagnostics In contrast to SSP, the SBTexcellerator product line, which was completed in March 2009, uses another advanced HLA typing technology, known as Sequencing-Based Typing (SBT).
According to the agreement, Qiagen will continue to have distribution rights to Olerup SSP® products that can be used in applications outside transplantation testing. Such tests include the typing of the HLA-B*5701 allele–a test to assess the risk of AIDS patients for severe adverse reactions to the widely prescribed HIV drug component Abacavir. The agreement also includes options for Qiagen to distribute future Olerup SSP® assays for pharmacogenetic applications.
