Venaxis Announces Acquisition of BiOptix

Venaxis®, Inc. announced that it has acquired BiOptix Diagnostics, Inc., a Boulder, CO-based privately-held company. BiOptix has developed a proprietary Enhanced Surface Plasmon Resonance (E SPR) technology platform for the detection of molecular interactions. The technology was developed in conjunction with Dr. John ‘Jan’ Hall, Adjoint Professor, JILA (University of Colorado), who shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2005.

Venaxis acquire as of September 12, 2016, approximately 98% of the voting shares of BiOptix for approximately 14% of the Venaxis post-deal outstanding common shares.

BiOptix offers an affordable and powerful solution for drug discovery scientists that require label-free real-time detection of biomolecular interactions. The BiOptix unique enhanced instrumentation offers precise measurement of kinetics, affinity constants and concentration, proprietary easy-to-use analytical software, and two operating modes for higher throughput and experimental flexibility.

BiOptix’ technology is an ultra-sensitive detection Surface Plasma Resonance (SPR) platform which combines high sensitivity with microarray detection capability allowing Pharma and Biotech researchers to understand much earlier in the discovery process whether their target molecules have functionality against the disease targeted. BiOptix’ partners with academic research institutions, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and contract research organizations to help make these partners drug development process more effective and productive.

SPR is an advanced and highly sensitive optical technology that can measure refractive index changes on a sensor chip’s gold surface due to a change in mass that occurs during a binding event. This change can be used to monitor biological interactions such as the concentration of target molecules, kinetic rates and affinity constants.

“We are pleased to announce this acquisition and are excited by the opportunity we believe it represents for shareholders of Venaxis,” said Steve Lundy, Chief Executive Officer of Venaxis, Inc. “The newly combined company will benefit from BiOptix technology and market opportunity, combined with Venaxis resources and public listing. The company is expected to initially focus on product improvement initiates and expanding commercialization of BiOptix’s 404pi E-SPR product.”