MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- OPKO Health, Inc. (NYSE:OPK - News) today announced its acquisition of Claros Diagnostics, Inc., a Woburn, Massachusetts based company that has developed a novel microfluidics-based test system consisting of a disposable test cassette that resembles a credit card and a small but sophisticated desktop analyzer. Used together, they provide high performance quantitative blood test results within minutes and permit the transition of complex immunoassays and other tests from the centralized reference laboratory to the physician’s office or hospital nurses station.
The Claros technology requires only a finger stick drop of blood introduced into the cassette, which can multiplex up to 20 separate tests with unparalleled ease. Claros has successfully validated the technology for urology and infectious disease market applications, and this validation will serve as a bridge to other test panels for infectious disease, cardiology, women’s health, companion diagnostics, and almost any field of blood diagnostics.
“Claros presents an ideal strategic fit for OPKO,” said Phillip Frost, M.D., Chairman and CEO of OPKO Health. “Use of the Claros platform technology for already marketed tests provides near-term commercialization possibilities. Later, the Claros technology can be used with OPKO’s proprietary biomarkers. OPKO is presently developing unique antibody based tests for early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s’ disease, Parkinson’s disease, and lung, pancreatic and other cancers. The combined OPKO-Claros technology will also provide an ideal platform for use as companion diagnostics,” continued Dr. Frost. “We welcome the Claros team and are proud that Claros was recently profiled, among Google, IBM, Apple, Roche, and others, as one of the 50 Most Innovative Companies in the World for 2011 by MIT Technology Review.”
“There are tremendous synergies between the Claros and OPKO technologies which can position OPKO to be an important provider of diagnostics products,” said Michael J. Magliochetti, Ph.D., CEO of Claros. “Its precision and ease of use give the Claros platform the opportunity to play a significant role in the worldwide diagnostics business.”
