Nov 19 2008
febit group, specialists in the field of advanced and flexible genomic analysis, today announced a strategic investment and technology development agreement with In-Q-Tel, the independent strategic investment firm that identifies innovative technology solutions to support the mission of the broader U.S. Intelligence Community.
This strategic collaboration will further the development of febit’s Geniom® Technology to detect pathogens more quickly and with increased reliability. The technology development agreement with In-Q-Tel is anticipated to improve the sensitive, flexible, and fully automated Geniom platform for the multiplexed detection and classification of known and unknown pathogens for the special needs of bio security. The strategic investment is the result of an extensive evaluation process and thorough testing of febit’s technology.
“febit’s technology has the potential to become an important tool within the bio security sector,” said Ben Levitan, Partner at In-Q-Tel. “We are excited about the capabilities of the existing platform and believe that our strategic collaboration with febit will lead to a well-engineered and practical high-end analysis device for multiple applications.”
“This strategic investment in febit is In-Q-Tel’s first engagement with a German company and validates febit’s cutting-edge technology capabilities,” said Professor Christof Hettich, member of febit’s supervisory board and representative of its German lead investor Dievini GmbH & Co KG, the counsellors of the investment companies of Dietmar Hopp and family – the co-founder and longstanding CEO of SAP.
“febit develops simple solutions for complex genomic tasks with an unsurpassed degree of automation. We are thrilled about the anticipated opportunities resulting from our agreement with In-Q-Tel,” said Cord F. Staehler, CEO at febit. “febit’s partnership with In-Q-Tel enables us to focus on the field of pathogen detection, and further enhance an application-oriented device with well-defined requirements, similar to what we have developed in the field of microRNA analysis with the Geniom RT Analyzer.”
“We are very excited about our collaboration with In-Q-Tel. The scope of this agreement will address the current needs of the bio security industry, as well as provide value to the other aspects of our business,” said Anthony P. Caruso, Vice President of Informatics at febit and Head of febit’s bio security activities. “Our overall objective is to further increase the sensitivity of the Geniom instruments, and to enhance our ability to quickly identify the presence of thousands of unique organisms in a single assay, all with the Geniom’s inherent ability to adapt to newly discovered samples in a matter of hours.”