Agilent Technologies announces Lasergen acquisition

Agilent Technologies has agreed a deal to take complete ownership of Lasergen, a growing biotechnology company that develops innovative technologies for DNA sequencing.

The company already owns a 48 percent stake in Lasergen after making an initial investment in March 2016, and has now exercised its option to purchase the remaining shares for $105 million (GBP 74.59 million).

Over the last two years, Lasergen and Agilent have been collaborating on a next-generation sequencing workflow for clinical applications, utilising sequencing technology based on Lasergen's Lightning Terminators chemistry.

This approach offers potentially faster, more accurate and less expensive genome sequencing than current technologies allow, meaning this work forms a core part of Agilent's strategic goal of building a new complete routine clinical next-generation sequencing workflow.

Jacob Thaysen, president of Agilent's diagnostics and genomics group, said: "Building a next-generation sequencing workflow for clinical applications is a critical component to Agilent's diagnostics strategy to fight cancer and constitutional diseases. We are focused on delivering patient-centric, actionable information for clinical decisions."

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