OpGen said today it agreed to acquire molecular diagnostics developer AdvanDx for an undisclosed price.

The deal adds AdvanDx’s FDA-approved and CE marked rapid molecular tests to OpGen’s tools designed to fight multi-drug resistant organisms, such as its Acuitas® MDRO gene tests and bioinformatics.

OpGen also markets the Acuitas Lighthouse™ MDRO Management System, a bioinformatics tool that combines test results and hospital data to identify and track dangerous MDROs; and the Acuitas Resistome Test designed to detect more than 49 MDRO gene families by characterizing drug susceptibility and resistance phenotypes, while aiding in transmission investigations by selecting candidates for high-resolution testing using Acuitas Whole Genome Sequence Analysis.

AdvanDx specializes in products for carrying out molecular testing of blood cultures. AdvanDx’s QuickFISH™ products are designed to provide 20-minute identification and differentiation of Gram-negative species and other blood pathogens.

QuickFISh is one of three product families for AdvanDx; the other two are PNA FISH®, a 90-minute pathogen identification panel of tests for rapid identification of bacteria and yeast directly from positive blood cultures; and XpressFISH®, a platform designed to detect resistance markers from positive blood cultures in about an hour.

AdvanDx finished last year with gross revenue of approximately $4.8 million. The company has approximately 20 employees and facilities in Woburn, MA, and Vedbaek, Denmark.

“The acquisition of AdvanDx strengthens OpGen's portfolio of rapid molecular tests for combating drug resistant infections, while providing additional avenues to sell our Acuitas tests,” Evan Jones, OpGen’s chairman & CEO, said in a statement. “Combination of the two companies will expand our revenue and customer base and provide rapid testing capabilities to complement our MDRO gene tests. Together we will be able to combine rapid organism ID capabilities with best in class drug resistance testing.”

The acquisition will be carried out as a merger combination, with OpGen having issued 681,818 shares of its common stock. Majority stockholders in AdvanDx include LD Pensions, Merck Global Health Innovation (Merck GHI), and SLS Ventures.

Separately, OpGen said today it closed a $6 million financing by Merck GHI. The fund agreed to purchase 1,136,364 shares of OpGen common stock at $4.40 per share for an aggregate purchase price of $5 million, plus a $1 million senior secured promissory note with 8% interest maturing in July 2017.

In connection with the financing, David M. Rubin, Ph.D., managing director of Merck GHI, has been appointed to OpGen's board of directors, effective immediately.

Merck GHI is a $250 million fund focused on developing companies in two categories outside of Merck's core pharmaceuticals, vaccines, consumer products, and animal health businesses—namely, health solutions and services, and health information technology.

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