PerkinElmer acquires Shanghai Haoyuan Biotech to complement screening capabilities

WALTHAM, Mass.—PerkinElmer Inc. recently announcedthat it has completed the acquisition of Shanghai Haoyuan Biotech Co. Ltd., aChina-based infectious disease diagnostics company, with an eye towardextending PerkinElmer's capabilities into nucleic acid blood screening. TheU.S. company also sees this as a chance to gain entre into the growingmolecular clinical diagnostics market in China thus, as it says, "furtherstrengthening the company's position as a diagnostics leader in China as wellas across the globe."

The purchase price for the transaction was $38million in cash and potential future additional consideration based on theachievement of revenue-based targets. The acquisition is anticipated to beimmaterial to PerkinElmer's adjusted earnings for the remainder of 2012 and2013 and accretive beginning in 2014.

Haoyuan, a supplier of molecular infectiousdisease screening technologies for blood bank and clinical laboratory settingsthroughout China, reportedly extends PerkinElmer's portfolio by adding fourinfectious disease assays that are approved by China's State Food and DrugAdministration. These infectious disease diagnostics tools include aqualitative 3-in-1 assay for the detection of hepatitis B (HBV), hepatitis C(HCV), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), two clinical quantitative assaysthat screen for HBV and HCV, and one qualitative assay screen for Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae.

"By combining PerkinElmer's robust diseasescreening capabilities with Haoyuan's proprietary reagents and equipment, the companywill be able to offer highly sensitive systems and assays for quality detectionof blood-borne infections for the Chinese market," said Robert Friel, chairmanand CEO of PerkinElmer. "Integrating Haoyuan's screening products withPerkinElmer's diagnostics capabilities will help to further advance the healthof the Chinese people by offering leading technology that ensures accuratediagnosis of infectious diseases at a low cost."

PerkinElmer notes that one opportunity is found inthe fact that with China facing an annual 15 percent increase in the demand fordonated blood, the Chinese government is now mandating and funding infectiousdisease screening of such blood. The Chinese government's latest five-year planmandates that all blood be tested using nucleic acid technologies by the end of2015.

According to PerkinElmer, compared to antibody testing methods, nucleicacid testing reduces the potential for failed detection of certain infectiondiseases that exhibit long incubation times between infection and detection. Thecompany also notes that there are approximately 780,000 people living withHIV/AIDS in China and that the World Health Organization reports chronicinfection rates of 8 percent to 10 percent of the adult population with HBV and3.2 percent of China's 1.4 billion peopleliving with HCV.