Affymetrix acquires ParAllele BioScience

Affymetrix has signed an agreement to acquire ParAllele Bioscience - a move intended to broaden its variety of microarray applications. This acquisition builds on a two-year collaboration between the two companies.

Under the terms of the agreement, Affymetrix is paying approximately $120 million (€98 million) to acquire ParAllele. The merger consideration is intended to be paid in Affymetrix stock. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2005.

As a result of the transaction, for fiscal 2005, Affymetrix expects to incur a merger-related charge for in-process research and development of approximately $15 million as well as operational charges in the range of $4 million to $7 million.

The deal represents Affymetrix's first acquisition in five years. Affymetrix's last acquisition occured back in 2000, when the company acquired Genetic Microsystems and Neomorphic within a sixmonth period.

As part of the deal, Affymetrix have acquired ParAllele's Molecular Inversion Probe (MIP) assay technology. The MIP design allows up to tens of thousands of reactions to be multiplexed in a single tube. When combined with an Affymetrix GeneChip universal tag array, MIP technology gives researchers with unprecedented access to any area of the genome.

When combined, these technologies offer scientists the ability to perform analysis from several to tens of thousands of different sites in the genome, allowing freedom to design virtually any experiment. This proven technology has been used successfully in the International Human Haplotype Mapping (HapMap) Project.

"The potential for ParAllele's technology goes far beyond genotyping. We will combine both companies' technologies to accelerate discovery and product development in a wide variety of areas, from basic research to the clinic," said Stephen Fodor, chairman and chief executive officer of Affymetrix.

March 2003, Affymetrix and Parallele Bioscience announced an agreement under which Affymetrix supplied Parallele with GeneChip Tag Arrays for use in combination with parallele's proprietary "lab in a tube" assay technology for custom single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping.

This was followed up in May 2004 with the news that Affymetrix and Parallele BioScience had signed a non-exclusive distribution and marketing agreement. The two companies were offering early technology access to Parallele's MegAllele genotyping reagents for use with Affymetrix GeneChip arrays, enabling researchers to perform large-scale genotyping.

The relationship between the two companies went from strength to strength as July of the same year saw scientists at Cambridge University using GeneChip Tag Arrays and MegAllele genotyping reagents in genetic studies of type 1 diabetes. to acquire ParAllele. The merger consideration is intended to be paid in Affymetrix stock. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2005.

As a result of the transaction, for fiscal 2005, Affymetrix expects to incur a merger-related charge for in-process research and development of approximately $15 million as well as operational charges in the range of $4 million to $7 million.

As part of the deal, Affymetrix have acquired ParAllele's Molecular Inversion Probe (MIP) assay technology. The MIP design allows up to tens of thousands of reactions to be multiplexed in a single tube. When combined with an Affymetrix GeneChip universal tag array, MIP technology gives researchers with unprecedented access to any area of the genome.

When combined, these technologies offer scientists the ability to perform analysis from several to tens of thousands of different sites in the genome, allowing freedom to design virtually any experiment. This proven technology has been used successfully in the International Human Haplotype Mapping (HapMap) Project.

"The potential for ParAllele's technology goes far beyond genotyping. We will combine both companies' technologies to accelerate discovery and product development in a wide variety of areas, from basic research to the clinic," said Stephen Fodor, chairman and chief executive officer of Affymetrix.

March 2003, Affymetrix and Parallele Bioscience announced an agreement under which Affymetrix supplied Parallele with GeneChip Tag Arrays for use in combination with parallele's proprietary "lab in a tube" assay technology for custom single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping.

This was followed up in May 2004 with the news that Affymetrix and Parallele BioScience had signed a non-exclusive distribution and marketing agreement. The two companies were offering early technology access to Parallele's MegAllele genotyping reagents for use with Affymetrix GeneChip arrays, enabling researchers to perform large-scale genotyping.

The relationship between the two companies went from strength to strength as July of the same year saw scientists at Cambridge University using GeneChip Tag Arrays and MegAllele genotyping reagents in genetic studies of type 1 diabetes.