Pierian, Seven Bridges, UgenTec Acquired, Merged to Become Velsera

Original from: genomeweb

Healthcare and life science firms Pierian, Seven Bridges, and UgenTec have been acquired by investment fund Summa Equity for an undisclosed amount and merged to form a new precision medicine company, Velsera. The creation of the new company was announced on Thursday at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference.

Headquartered in Boston, Velsera will be led by CEO Gavin Nichols, who was most recently CEO of the global medical imaging firm Calyx.

St. Louis-based Pierian is a clinical genomics technology and services provider, while Boston-based Seven Bridges offers a scalable multi-cloud analytic platform, petabytes of connected biomedical data, and on-demand professional services. UgenTec, a Belgian firm with US offices, is a provider of software and AI solutions for laboratory workflow automation and testing result interpretation, including PCR data analysis and clinical-grade software solutions.

According to a statement, Velsera aims to enable the democratization of omics data across clinical and research applications by integrating "a rich software platform, deep domain expertise, and knowledge that accelerates the pace and potential of multiomics." 

The integrated business will remain engaged with existing customers, enhance current offerings, accelerate new offerings, and bring integrated solutions to market.

"As Velsera, we will catalyze the conversion of siloed, global data into insights from clinical and R&D settings to reveal the true promise of precision medicine," Nichols said.

Hans Cobben, a partner at Summa Equity and chair of the board of Velsera, said that the combination of the three companies "will accelerate innovation and deliver change at remarkable scale." In addition, the new firm meets United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by reducing the cost of development of new diagnostics, therapies, and drugs, as well as increasing access for underserved populations, Cobben said.

Source: Pierian, Seven Bridges, UgenTec Acquired, Merged to Become Velsera