With cancer diagnosis and characterization in the vanguard of molecular diagnostics development and investment, General Electric Co.'s GE Healthcare division's choice of the area for its first major external investment in molecular IVD test content certainly appears rational. In October, GE made a tender offer of slightly over $580 million for Clarient Inc., which provides laboratory tests using important clinically validated cancer molecular markers including BRAF, EGFr, and KRAS. [See Deal] GE intends to make Clarient the cornerstone around which it builds out a molecular in vitro diagnostics (IVD) business.
Clarient's laboratory utilizes most of the standard cancer testing technologies including immunohistochemistry, flow cytometry, FISH, and imaging. GE Healthcare, working...