Avacta acquire OMD

has conditionally agreed to acquire

(OMD) for an initial purchase consideration of £3m.

‘OMD brings a highly complementary capability that has applications in our core markets of biopharmaceuticals, defence and healthcare and brings with it new routes to market for us in industrial process monitoring,’ said Professor Alastair Smith, chief executive of Avacta. ‘Point-of-care health diagnosis is increasing in importance, driven by the need to effect more immediate treatments. We believe that the OMD technology will become an important tool for clinicians helping to make breath diagnostics a routine method of health assessment in the future.’

OMD has reached the final prototype stage of the laser-based analysis device and the first product, which can measure the moisture content in natural gas, is expected to reach the market in late 2008. The market for industrial gas analysis technology is estimated at approximately $1.5bn, and includes security and defence applications, toxic gas detection and gas quality analysis.

The acquisition is conditional on the approval of resolutions to increase the authorised share capital of Avacta and tax clearance being obtained by the selling shareholders of OMD.