Acquisition leads firm closer to DNA breakthrough

A small Hamilton-based firm, ZyGEM Corp, has bought a United States-based company, MicroLab Diagnostics, to tap a US$3 billion (NZ$4.5b) market in DNA testing.

The new company is planning to seek capital and begin production next year, ZyGEM and Endeavour Capital chairman Neville Jordan told the Dominion Post from the Middle East.

ZyGEM started four years ago out of intellectual property from Waikato and Auckland universities. Mr Jordan said the merger will bring the Kiwi company's DNA and RNA detection and extraction agents together with the instrumentation developed by MicroLab.

He said a prototype tested recently at a scientific meeting in the US got accurate DNA results in less than an hour, compared to the usual process which takes five to 10 hours and three instruments.

Mr Jordan said the technology had several potential markets, including forensics, biodefence, point-of-care diagnostics and food pathogen testing, all of which called for accuracy, speed and ease of use."The initial target will be forensic and government markets, which we estimate to exceed US$3b annually in the USA alone."

Mr Jordan said the technology was "a major development" and it highlighted what New Zealand science, coupled with local shareholders and government funding, could achieve.

ZyGEM had been a small company which was already generating product revenue and had now produced a world-class technology. "It's a pretty exciting trajectory."

He hoped capital could be raised in New Zealand but did not know whether a listing would be involved.

The company would retain a MicroLab division in the US and some production might be carried out there, he said.

- © Fairfax NZ News