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Invitae to Acquire Singular Bio to Help Increase Access to Genetic Screening in Early Pregnancy
— Singular Bio’s Technology Designed to Enable High-Quality,Low-Cost Genetic Testing at
Scale to Expand Access toNon-Invasive Prenatal Screening —
SAN FRANCISCO, June 17, 2019– Invitae Corporation (NYSE: NVTA), a leading medical genetics company, today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquireSingular Bio, Inc., a privately held company developing single molecule detection technology that enables lower costs and expanded use of high-quality, cell-free, nucleic acid analysis, initially for application innon-invasive prenatal screening (NIPS).
“Since we began, Invitae has invested deeply to harness the power of the most advanced genetic testing technologies in order to deliver expert-level genetic information at scale, and bringing this company into Invitae is the next step in that process,” said Sean George, PhD,co-founder and chief executive officer of Invitae. “Singular Bio is building an approach tonon-invasive prenatal screening with the potential to achieve the cost savings necessary to provide more women with genetic information to support a healthy pregnancy. We believe this approach could eventually be applied to other areas of genetic testing. The addition of Singular Bio’s technology will further strengthen our ability to bring genetic information into mainstream medical care.”
Supporting Wider Availability of Screening in Early Pregnancy
As the utility of genetic information expands, particularly in pregnancy and reproductive health, demand for high-quality and highly affordable testing grows with it. NIPS is conducted in early pregnancy to detect chromosomal abnormalities and assess the health of the fetus via a simple blood test.
Invitae introduced its NIPS services earlier this year and recently announced reducedpatient-pay pricing of $99 to improve access to testing for the six million pregnancies in the United States each year. Historically, these tests have been expensive, and therefore offered only to women in certain elevated risk groups. By investing in technologies, including those developed by Singular Bio, Invitae is driving down the cost of testing to increase the number of women who can benefit from the use of NIPS testing in early pregnancy.
“By joining together with Invitae, we believe our technology can help make routinenon-invasive prenatal screening widely available,” said Hywel B. Jones, PhD, chief executive officer of Singular Bio. “We are excited that Invitae shares our drive to provide advanced molecular tests at affordable prices, thereby improving care for all patients.”