September 25, 2009
New Mexico Business Weekly
Beckman deal puts IntelliCyt on world’s radar
by Kevin Robinson-Avila NMBW Staff
Beckman Coulter, a marketing powerhouse for life science testing devices, is now the exclusive global distributor for a high-speed cytometer, or cell scanner, developed by IntelliCyt Corp.
California’s Beckman Coulter is a $3.1 billion publicly traded company, with marketing offices worldwide and sales in more than 150 countries. Under an agreement signed in August, Beckman Coulter will have exclusive rights to distribute IntelliCyt’s system, known as the HyperCyt, in all markets outside North America.
Albuquerque-based IntelliCyt will continue to independently sell its HyperCyt as a stand-alone product in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, but Beckman Coulter can include the HyperCyt as an adjunct to Beckman Coulter-made systems in North American markets, said IntelliCyt President and CEO Terry Dunlay.
“This gives us the ability to distribute our product on a worldwide basis,” Dunlay said. “As a small company, that’s a challenge to do by ourselves.”
Dunlay licensed the technology for the HyperCyt from the University of New Mexico, which developed a process to greatly speed the ability of “flow-through” cytometers to scan molecular compounds. Flow-through systems use fluids to rapidly push compounds through cytometers to study cells up close for research and drug discovery. The machines have been on the market for more than three decades, but most lack the supercomputing capability needed in today’s world to rapidly sift through hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of molecular compounds.
Scientists at UNM’s Cancer Research and Treatment Center developed a technique to feed many more tissue samples at much faster rates through the cell scanners, making them about 30 times more rapid than normal flow cytometers. The UNM researchers also developed new software to more quickly manage the mounds of data being fed through the system.
Dunlay formed IntelliCyt in 2006 and received a $1.1 million seed investment from the Verge Fund to begin marketing the HyperCyt, which sells for between $50,000 and $60,000 per unit, depending on the options purchased, Dunlay said.
“Most flow cytometers on the market cost from $100,000 to $300,000, so having something that gives those machines new capabilities and applications is very worthwhile for customers,” Dunlay said.
Nevertheless, almost all of IntelliCyt’s customers have been based in North America, making the agreement with Beckman Coulter particularly advantageous.
For Beckman Coulter, which markets its own, proprietary high-speed flow cytometer, adding the HyperCyt allows the company to offer customers the fastest machine on the market, said Brad Calvin, vice president of the company’s flow cytometry business center in Miami, Fla.
“We already have good technology to make cytometers go extremely fast, but combining our technology with the HyperCyt — now that’s a flow cytometer on steroids,” Calvin said. “Our machines can process 80,000 cells per second, but with the continuous aspiration [tissue feed process] that the HyperCyt provides, it’s a very, very powerful instrument.”
It also opens a new market segment for both Beckman Coulter and IntelliCyt in the pharmaceutical industry, where existing high-speed flow cytometers are equipped to measure just groups of cells together, Calvin said.
“This will give them the capability to measure how compounds impact each individual cell, rather than just seeing a macro picture of all the cells together,” he said. “It will give them a lot more information about what they’re looking at, with much faster speeds.”
Under the agreement, IntelliCyt will sell machines at a discount to Beckman Coulter, which, in turn, will sell them to end customers and provide support services, Dunlay said.
Bruce Edwards, a UNM professor of pathology and a co-inventor of the HyperCyt, said the agreement with the California firm helps validate IntelliCyt’s technology in the marketplace.
“It’s recognition by one of the prime movers and shakers in the flow cytometer commercial world,” Edwards said.
Tom Stephenson, managing general partner at Verge, said the agreement shows strong demand for IntelliCyt’s technology.
“This will open up new markets for them,” Stephenson said. “We’re very excited about the company’s continued progress and development.”
IntelliCyt Corp.
President and CEO: Terry Dunlay
317 Commercial NE, Suite G100, Albuquerque 87102
(505) 345-3140
e-mail: tdunlay@intellicyt.comWeb site: www.intellicyt.com
krobinson-avila@bizjournals.com | 505.348.8302