Biotech SF: BGI-Shenzhen

Complete Genomics' Cliff Reid.

A Chinese company will buy human genome sequencing company Complete Genomics Inc. for $113 million, the companies said Monday, and provide $30 million in bridge financing for operations after signing a merger agreement. A U.S. subsidiary of BGI-Shenzhen, which includes nonprofit genomic research institutes and sequencing application commercial units, will launch a tender offer to buy all the outstanding shares of common stock in Mountain View-based Complete Genomics (NASDAQ: GNOM) for $3.15 per share cash. The price represents an 18 percent premium over Complete Genomics' $2.67 closing price on Friday.

Some of my favorite stories.

• "The fight of his life" (2007)

Last year Mike Homer helped raise the money for 2,000 medical research computers. Now researchers are using that equipment in an attempt to save his life.

• "For reporter, CJD is more than a story" (2007)

Seven years ago -- nearly to the day -- my mother died of Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease.

• "A son's YouTube plea for Avastin" (2010)

Josh Turnage is your typical teenager, trying to discover what he wants to do in college and with his life. But a 7-minute, 41-second YouTube video he produced about his mother's fight with breast cancer may thrust him into a debate between drug makers and the agency that regulates them.

• "New device could knock out old dialysis technology" (2011)

Shuvo Roy has all the makings for the world's first implantable artificial kidney, thanks to nanotechnology and a web of nationwide collaborations.

All he needs now is $20 million.

Biotech SF

Monday, September 17, 2012

Chinese company to buy Complete Genomics, keep HQ in Mountain View