UK diagnostics company to expand manufacturing capacity

Manchester-based DxS, a personalised medicine company and provider of companion diagnostics plans to expand its manufacturing facilities and increase staff to meet increased demand for its companion diagnostic kits.

The private, venture capital-backed company will take on more specialised manufacturing space at its current site in Manchester, strategically positioned near to the Manchester Royal Infirmary, Wellcome Trust Millennium Clinical Research Facility, NOWGEN and University of Manchester Medical School. The company says it intends to have doubled in size over the coming months.

The increase in demand follows the recent announcement that Amgen selected the DxS TheraScreen K-RAS assay as the preferred method of assessing a patient's K-RAS mutation status, in order to support sales of Vectibix, Amgen's colorectal cancer therapy.

The DxS K-RAS test has been readily adopted by Pathologists and Oncologists across Europe, due to its high sensitivity, selectivity and simple workflow.

Dr Stephen Little, ceo of DxS said: "The expansion in our capacity and the planned additions to our team, reflect our commercial success and significant growth. Sales of our K-RAS companion diagnostic for Amgen's Vectibix, have increased radically over the last six months, necessitating an up-scaling in our manufacturing facilities. We anticipate continued international growth as personalised medicine in the cancer field becomes a reality."

In addition, the company has also been awarded the ISO 13485:2003 quality certification for the design, development and manufacture of molecular diagnostic products for human genetic analysis..

DxS has a range of products including cancer mutation assays and kits, molecular diagnostic technologies and genetic analysis services. Its Therascreen range of kits can identify genetic tumour mutations affecting how patients respond to cancer therapies.