Japan’s Holdings to buy US-based Caris Life Sciences for $725 million

Miraca Holdings, Japan's largest clinical diagnostics and laboratory testing company, yesterday signed a deal to buy the anatomic-pathology business of US-based Caris Life Sciences (CLS) for $725 million, the first overseas acquisition of a clinical lab testing company by a Japanese firm.

Miraca Holdings is the latest Japanese company that is capitalising on a strong yen to buy overseas assets.

Miraca is buying Dallas, Texas-based Caris Diagnostics (CDx), which specialises in anatomic pathology testing services that has laboratories in Texas, Massachusetts and Arizona that service more than 3,500 patients daily.

The purchase does not include CLS' Caris Target Now molecular profiling service or Carisome circulating microvesicle technology, currently under development.

CDx is a leading pathology equipment maker specialising in gastrointestinal, dermatopathology, haematopathology and urologic pathology services and says it has been growing at over 40 per cent annually over the past six years.

Tokyo-based Miraca, created through a two-way merger in 2005, supplies diagnostic products to more than 100 countries globally through its Fujirebio subsidiary and provides comprehensive support for laboratory testing in Japan through its SRL unit.