The two largest private companies in the growing spatial biology segment, Vizgen and Ultivue, said they have merged into a single entity that will offer both single-cell spatial genomics and multiplex proteomic profiling technologies to customers engaged in foundational and clinical research.
The combined company—which will carry the Vizgen name—will build upon its namesake predecessor’s expertise in single-cell spatial genomics and Ultivue’s leadership in multiplex proteomic profiling. The new Vizgen also aims to increase its presence in clinical lab settings while continuing to serve customers in research institutions and biopharmas.
“I firmly believe that for spatial analysis to reach its full potential, it’s going to have to reach into the point of having clinical utility,” Rob Carson, president and CEO of the newly combined Vizgen, told GEN Edge. “In order to do that, you not only have to have very robust techniques and efficient workflows, you have to have a level of sensitivity that allows a clinician to take very high confidence action.”
“The level of information provided by high-fidelity spatial analysis is clearly proving its value. It’s that continued course down the reproducibility trajectory and evidence generation that’s going to allow for one day the leap into the clinic,” Carson explained. “I think we’re seeing that movement, that inevitable trajectory not only toward reproducibility and robustness, but also toward very high-performance readouts.”
Carson since last year has served as CEO and president at Ultivue, a developer of multiplexing tools and novel image analysis solutions for tissue biomarker studies, after holding executive roles at Medtronic, Waters, and Harbinger Health. Ultivue has developed high-fidelity InSituPlex® assays and the AI-powered STARVUE™ spatial analysis platform, technologies designed to help researchers better understand molecular-level interactions by providing them with subcellular precision. The company was founded in 2015.
The Ultivue name and its sub-brands like STARVUE and OmniVUE™, its portfolio of fully customizable biomarker panels, “will migrate under the Vizgen umbrella. That’s our operating assumption,” Carson said.
“I don’t imagine we’ll sunset the Ultivue name immediately by any stretch,” he added. “There’s a growing amount of resonance for that, within biopharma in particular, but we’ll create a streamlined brand architecture in time.”
Vizgen, founded four years later, markets Multiplexed Error-Robust Fluorescence in situ Hybridization (MERFISH) spatial genomics technology—including MERSCOPE Ultra™ Spatial Imaging, a high-resolution in situ spatial genomics platform that offers a tissue-wide view of up to 1,000 custom genes at single-cell resolution, and maps transcripts across 3 cm2 of tissue on a single slide.
According to its website, Vizgen has installed more than 100 MERSCOPE platforms globally, with more than 75 peer-reviewed papers, publications, and preprints referencing the platform. Vizgen also tallies more than 85 peer-reviewed papers, publications, and preprints referencing other MERFISH tools and technologies.
Continuing consolidation
Vizgen and Ultivue are the latest among leading spatial biology companies to consolidate, continuing a wave that is reshaping the industry. In May, Bruker acquired NanoString Technologies by placing the winning $392.6 million bid for the company at a bankruptcy court auction. NanoString filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors in February, blaming a $31 million jury award assessed against it last November in a patent infringement case filed by 10x Genomics.
Last year, Bruker detailed plans to transform its Canopy Biosciences subsidiary, acquired in 2020 for an undisclosed sum, into a performance leader in spatial biology.
Also in 2023, Bio-Techne acquired Swedish tools developer Lunaphore for an undisclosed price, in a deal designed to accelerate the buyer’s spatial biology presence in translational and clinical research markets.
Vizgen and Ultivue are familiar to each other, and not just because they are located three blocks apart in Cambridge, MA.
“Over the years, we’ve gotten to know our counterparts and colleagues at Vizgen somewhat well. We do have some investors in common, and more importantly, we’ve done some joint experimental work in the past” going back more than a year, Carson recalled.
“Given the competencies of the two companies, which includes spatial proteomics and spatial transcriptomics, we were exploring possibilities of the intersection there, and looking at one another’s workflows, instruments, assays, and so on. So we really centered there,” he said.
Why did Vizgen and Ultivue ultimately combine?
Carson said the answer can be encapsulated in the slogan Ultivue often employed to summarize its approach to spatial biology: See more. See faster. See in situ.
“That’s really what multiomics is all about,” Carson asserted. “It’s getting the most out of your sample. It’s doing it faster or in parallel or simultaneously, in order that you’re providing in an efficient fashion, the depth of insight required for high-confidence decisions. That’s what I know is a core impetus behind this transaction.”
Due diligence, Carson said, went beyond the usual study of financial statements: “I would even argue that interactions, reading a poster that one company presents at a given scientific meeting, that that is a form of diligence. And certainly, stepping it up to joint experiments going back more than a year, that’s arguably a type of diligence as well.”
Litigation from rival
Vizgen is among the spatial biology companies that have found themselves in litigation with a larger public company in this space. 10x Genomics sued Vizgen in 2022, alleging that Vizgen’s MERSCOPE Platform, workflow, and Lab Services program, including associated instruments and reagents, infringed five U.S. patents (Nos. 11,021,737; 11,293,051; 11,293,052; 11,293,054; and 11,299,767). 10x seeks unspecified damages including attorneys’ fees.
Vizgen has denied wrongdoing, and in March declared publicly it was “very pleased” when the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office denied a petition by 10x to launch an Inter Partes Review challenging U.S. Patent No. 11,098,303 B2, which Vizgen licenses exclusively from Harvard University. 10x co-founder and CEO Serge Saxonov, PhD, has dismissed the PTAB action, telling GEN it was “a non-event.”
Vizgen has also filed a parallel case in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, asserting in part that 10x’s Xenium In Situ single-cell spatial imaging platform infringed upon certain claims of the ‘303 Patent, something 10x has denied.
Separately, after Vizgen and NanoString launched their own in situ platforms, Harvard and 10x sued the companies in 2022, alleging that the platforms had infringed upon their patents for 10x’s Xenium In Situ, which was developed by 10x using technology from ReadCoor, a company 10x acquired in 2020 for $350 million. In 2016, Harvard licensed patents covering the technology exclusively to ReadCoor, which was founded by George M. Church, PhD, of Harvard Medical School.
NanoString and Vizgen responded by accusing Harvard and 10x of violating the agreement through which the NIH granted Harvard and Church $20 million to establish the Center for Transcriptional Consequences of Human Genetic Variation (CTCHGV). Vizgen and NanoString cited the application of Harvard and Church for the NIH funding, in which they stated: “CTCHGV will pursue open and nonexclusive licensing agreements that encourage innovations to be made widely available to researchers and commercial entities.”
Antitrust allegations
In May, Visiting Judge Matthew F. Kennelly allowed Vizgen to add antitrust allegations in its response to the 10x/Harvard lawsuit [10x Genomics, Inc., and President and Fellows of Harvard College, Plaintiffs, v. Vizgen, Inc., Defendant (No. 1:22-cv-000595-MFK)].
Vizgen accused 10x and Harvard of conspiring to monopolize the market by obstructing Vizgen’s ability to compete globally. Vizgen cited 10x’s bundling of its Chromium Single Cell Immune Profiling platform, and its Visium Spatial Gene Expression platform franchises with its Xenium In Situ single-cell spatial imaging platform, as well as what Vizgen alleged to be predatory pricing.
10x responded by vowing to fight Vizgen’s antitrust allegations, repeating its accusation that Vizgen infringed on its patents for its genomic tool platforms; and accusing Vizgen of acting to drive up prices for 10x’s genomic tools.
Not so, Vizgen countered: “Vizgen remains committed to fair competition and innovation in the single-cell spatial genomics landscape,” the company stated in May. “These recent developments represent progress in protecting researchers’ access to our groundbreaking MERSCOPE® and MERFISH technologies, and our fight against monopolistic anticompetitive practices.”
10x has also alleged that Vizgen’s MERSCOPE and Lab Services infringed U.S. Patent No. 11,549,136, but has withdrawn an earlier claim of infringement of the ‘054 patent after the companies clashed on whether it requires steps of the method claims must be performed in the order in which they appear in the patents.
The 10x case vs. Vizgen is set to go to trial in February 2025 while a trial date on Vizgen’s counterclaim regarding the ‘303 patent is expected to be set before year’s end, 10x stated in its Form 10-Q quarterly filing for the second quarter of this year.
10x has defended its strategy of aggressively litigating potential infringement of its patents, contending it is protecting innovation rather than squelching it as argued by competitors and leading academic researchers in the spatial biology community. A dozen leading scientists from 10 academic institutions criticized 10x in a commentary published by GEN in February.
Vizgen won’t comment on the 10x lawsuit or other specific lawsuits. Carson denies that the court cases were a factor in combining with Ultivue: “This particular coming together is really all about the strategy and the science, and where we believe science is going, as opposed to being something triggered by litigation or something along those lines.”
New financing completed
Vizgen and Ultivue will not disclose the value of their merger. Vizgen has announced the completion of a Series D financing concurrent with the merger, but will not say how much has been raised.
The pre-merger Vizgen was led by CEO Terry Lo, who steered that company through a period of significant growth, global expansion, and strategic transformation. Lo will become a board member of the merged company, which hopes to tap into his business acumen and technical knowledge of spatial biology.
The Series D attracted a syndicate that includes ARCH Venture Partners, Northpond Ventures, and Tao Capital Partners, as well as what Vizgen termed other unnamed “leading investors in the life sciences.”
ARCH Venture and Northpond led a financing of undisclosed value for Ultivue last year, with participation from Tao Capital as well as Yonghua Capital, Applied Ventures, and Liberty Lane Partners.
Before the merger, Vizgen and Ultivue were private companies that had raised more than $250 million combined. That includes $136.2 million garnered by Vizgen and over $120 million raised by Ultivue, according to GEN’s A-List of the Top 10 Spatial Biology Companies of 2023, set to be updated in the coming weeks. But in March, Vizgen also announced a “significant capital raise” of an undisclosed amount, citing the need to defend itself against 10x and Harvard.
The merged Vizgen will stay private, at least for now. But, how much of an advantage will that be for Vizgen?
“I haven’t thought a whole lot about it, to be honest,” Carson said. “At the end of the day, we’re accountable to various stakeholders, ourselves, our customers, and investors, whether they’re investing through public markets or otherwise.”
“Obviously our investors expect us to innovate and perform and grow. And if we do that, then there’ll be options of one sort or the other, I would expect,” he added.
