Fortis Life Sciences Acquires IPOC

NEW YORK – Fortis Life Sciences on Wednesday said it has acquired diagnostic testing component maker International Point of Care.

Boston-based Fortis, which offers contract-based assay development and manufacturing services, said the deal will enable it to provide customizable, end-to-end support for customers' immunodiagnostic and molecular diagnostics products. Toronto-based IPOC develops and makes diagnostic testing components such as lyophilized reagents, membranes, recombinant proteins, and controls. Its recently expanded facility will become Fortis' third good manufacturing practices (GMP)- and ISO 13485-compliant manufacturing site in North America.

A company spokesperson declined to disclose the financial and other terms of the deal.

Fred Pettijohn, chief business officer for Fortis, said in a statement that the deal will help the company provide its customers in diagnostics and life sciences with customized and validated reagents, quality controls, and cost controls with vertically integrated in-house manufacturing. IPOC CEO David Ray added that the acquisition will offer customers a complete suite of high-quality materials and services.

"Our combined expertise fully supports the diagnostic industry's advances in ultra-high-sensitivity, point-of-care, and multiplexing applications, as well as in novel technologies such as quantitative lateral flow, isothermal amplification, and CRISPR-based diagnostics," he said.