HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--NuProbe Global and CarrierGene Biotech Co. Ltd. (Suzhou, China) announced the successful completion of their recent merger and integration. The new company will operate under the English brand NuProbe Global and the Chinese brand阅尔 (Yue Er).
“We are very excited about the merger between NuProbe and CarrierGene,” said Yingshuang Chai, who is the co-founder and former CEO of CarrierGene and now serves as CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the merged NuProbe.
Mr. Chai is a renowned expert in the genomics industry with nearly 20 years of success and rich experience in market operation. He is the former national clinical business director of Life Technologies China and the former national director of clinical strategy & development of Thermo Fisher China.
“I am greatly impressed by NuProbe's technology, which is highly differentiated with unique features that are hard to mimic using alternative methods. The platform innovation can break through the current bottlenecks of the clinical genetic testing and enable new business models," Chai continued. "After the merger, NuProbe will have exceptional research and commercial teams in both the United States and China. In addition to new products to be deployed in the US, China, and the Asia-Pacific region, our technology can help other genomics companies achieve better technical performance, go beyond homogenous competition, and accelerate the expansion of the entire genomics diagnostic market. In the past six months, we have completed the integration of the two companies' products, finances, teams, and business, and made breakthrough progress with the development of new products.”
NuProbe has several groundbreaking cross-platform molecular technologies that greatly improve the technical performance of different molecular diagnostic platforms. CarrierGene has been a pioneer and leader in the blue ocean market of infertility gene testing in the field of reproductive health. The merged NuProbe will accelerate the commercialization of various cutting-edge technologies, empower existing technology platforms and business partners, create more products adapted to clinical applications, and enable new advances in the genomics market. The merged NuProbe will have research and development (R&D) laboratories in Houston, TX and Shanghai, China, as well as a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) production facility in Suzhou, China.
“Mr. Chai is an amazing entrepreneur with a precise and profound understanding of the Chinese genomics industry after years of immersion, and extraordinary insights and vision. I look forward to seeing NuProbe grow into a great enterprise under his leadership and contributing to the molecular diagnostics industry in China and around the world,” said Peng Yin, Ph.D., co-founder of NuProbe, who is also a professor of systems biology at Harvard Medical School and a core faculty member of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University.
“Both our R&D teams and commercial teams have enjoyed working together as business partners in the past year, and the formal merger will allow closer and more efficient collaboration," said David Zhang, Ph.D., co-founder of and head of innovation at NuProbe, and associate professor of bioengineering at Rice University.
Yundi Chen, Ph.D., co-founder of and CTO at CarrierGene, added: "NuProbe's technologies not only have strong applications in cancer, but are also well suited for many clinical challenges in genetic diseases and reproductive health. This merger will allow our two companies to more effectively penetrate our respective core markets while opening up new opportunities. "
“The synergy between NuProbe’s technology and CarrierGene’s commercial team is formidable. I am very happy to support the founding of NuProbe and facilitate the merger of NuProbe and CarrierGene. With the completion of the merger, we are optimistic that NuProbe will become an innovative diagnostic company rooted in China and leading the world,” said Kevin Chen, founding partner of BioTrack Capital and a member of the Board of Directors of the merged NuProbe. “BioTrack is enthusiastic to support the merged NuProbe with an initial investment.”
The investment by BioTrack Capital will support R&D in new product development, filing of NMPA (China’s equivalent of FDA) registrations for in vitro diagnostic products, and commercial team buildout.
“We believe that the merged NuProbe will rapidly realize the commercialization of its world-leading core technology. We are optimistic about the company's prospects, and fully support Mr. Chai and his team,” said Trency Gu, managing director at Sequoia Capital China and a member of the Board of Directors of NuProbe.
Ms. Gu will continue to serve as a member of the Board of Directors of the merged NuProbe.
“The revolutionary technologies developed by NuProbe will be strong assets for the merged company,” said Dongmei Ji, founding partner at GP Healthcare Capital. GP Healthcare Capital is one of the Pre-A investors of CarrierGene and has appointed Ms. Xiaoyan Wang as a member of the Board of Directors of the merged NuProbe.
“NuProbe's technology is widely recognized for its innovation and unique capabilities. The merger with CarrierGene will result in more products that benefit patients in a wider range of disease indications, ” said David R. Walt, Ph.D., member of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Medicine, co-founder of Illumina, professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School, and a core faculty member of the Wyss Institute at Harvard University.
"We look forward to continuing to support the merged NuProbe in driving more technology innovations to improve human health," Dr. George Church, member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering, professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, and a core faculty member of the Wyss Institute, added.
Both Dr. Walt and Dr. Church will continue to serve on the Scientific Advisory Board of the merged NuProbe.
In addition, the merged NuProbe has executed a contract for a strategic partnership with Illumina in late 2019. NuProbe and Illumina will work together in the field of clinical NGS testing for infertility and other genetic diseases. As part of the collaboration, NuProbe will develop clinical molecular diagnostic kits, including for nucleic acid extraction, library construction, and bioinformatic software. The kits will be used on Illumina's NGS instruments, and the two companies will seek regulatory approval from NMPA. Further potential collaborations between NuProbe and Illumina are in discussions.
To learn more about NuProbe, please visit www.nuprobe.com.
About NuProbe Global
NuProbe Global is a biotech company founded by world-class scientists in 2016, building initially on several technologies exclusively licensed from Harvard University and Rice University, and financed by prestigious institutional investors such as Sequoia Capital China. NuProbe possesses a number of revolutionary molecular diagnostics technologies, and collaborates with many renowned academic institutions, medical institutions, and companies worldwide. It has subsidiaries in Houston, USA and Suzhou, China. www.nuprobe.com
About CarrierGene Biotech Co. Ltd.
Founded in 2016, CarrierGene was co-founded by former senior employees from first-line companies in the genomics industry such as Thermo Fisher, Illumina and WuXi AppTec. Building on the blue ocean market of infertility in reproductive health, CarrierGene is committed to using advanced genetic testing technology and data analysis algorithms to identify the causes of infertility for patients, facilitate follow-up treatment, and increase the birth rate of the population. CarrierGene is the driver and leader in the infertility field of China. CarrierGene has a GMP facility in Suzhou and an R&D and marketing center in Shanghai. Several products have already entered the clinical registration stage.