LexaGene Receives Purchase Order from a Multinational Biotechnology Company

LexaGene Holdings, Inc., (TSX-V: LXG; OTCQB: LXXGF), a molecular diagnostics company that develops fully automated rapid pathogen detection systems, is pleased to announce that it has received a purchase order for a MiQLab™ system from a multinational biotechnology company that generates billions in annual revenue.

MiQLab is the first commercially available open-access multiplex PCR system of its kind. The open-access feature means it is extremely easy for operators to use the automated MiQLab system at their facility to perform customized, highly multiplexed PCR tests. This is highly desirable over the alternative, which is to ship collected samples to a reference laboratory for manual PCR processing by skilled molecular biologists or waiting days for cultures to grow.

The biotechnology company that has provided LexaGene a purchase order is a manufacturer of biologics, vaccines, and chemicals. Many of these biologics are grown in bioreactors that can be thousands of liters in size. During scale-up manufacturing, it is possible to have a bioreactor become contaminated with bacteria. The failure to detect such bacteria during the transfer of the product from a small bioreactor to a large bioreactor can cost the company hundreds of thousands of dollars to a million or more dollars.

To help prevent massive product losses late in the manufacturing process, the biotechnology company was looking for an easy to use and reliable sample-to-answer system that could process bioreactor material looking for a variety of different bacteria. One of the slower-growing bacteria they are targeting can take as much as two weeks to grow sufficiently to be detectable by traditional plate-based culture methods. LexaGene’s customizable MiQLab system solves this problem by automating a PCR test for this slow-growing bacterium. PCR amplifies targeted sequences by > 1 billion-fold to provide much earlier detection than is possible when waiting for culture.

Earlier this fall, the biotechnology company requested an in-house demonstration of LexaGene’s MiQLab. For this demonstration, LexaGene designed a test for the slow-growing C. acnes bacteria and combined it with tests already developed for E. coli, Staphylococcus, and Streptococcus. The biotechnology company arrived at LexaGene with representative samples that were taken from a bioreactor. These samples were separately spiked with each of the targeted bacteria. MiQLab successfully detected all four bacteria – even the slowest growing bacteria, proving LexaGene’s sample preparation cartridge successfully handled the complex sample type from the bioreactor and the MiQLab system achieved very strong detection of the targeted bacteria.

Dr. Jack Regan, LexaGene’s CEO and Founder, states, “Years ago, I recognized the life sciences sector lacked automated instrumentation that allows end-users to easily create a customized test. I’m excited to announce that we now have a commercial system available for sale to help solve this problem. It is very gratifying that our first sale will be to a company that wants our technology for open-access use. This is just the beginning. Over the coming weeks and months, we expect to continue to roll out our technology into the open-access market, as well as to the veterinary diagnostics market, and eventually the human clinical diagnostics market.”