Pharmaceutical giant Merck Serono has signed an exclusive deal securing global marketing and commercialization rights to Genea Biomedx’s range of IVF products including Gavi and Geri, which were designed by Genea and development partner, Planet Innovation.
Gavi is the world’s first automated vitrification instrument, focusing on lab processes with the aim of increasing efficiency in cryopreservation of embryos.
Geri is a benchtop incubator fitted with a camera to capture images of embryos as they develop and individually controlled incubation chambers per patient to minimize disruptive events to the early-stage embryo.
“As a pioneer in reproductive health, we are continuously seeking to extend our product portfolio to bring innovative science and services to the fertility community,” explained Belén Garijo, Member of the Executive Board of Merck and CEO Healthcare.
Gavi was recognized as one of the world’s most innovative products securing the New Product of the Year award at SLAS, the world’s largest laboratory automation conference, in San Diego in 2014.
“The partnership with Merck provides both global scale and expertise to this collaboration and will see both companies achieve their aim of advancing the outcomes of fertility treatment and bringing solutions to IVF labs around the world,” Genea CEO Tomas Stojanov said.
As reported in the Wall Street Journal and Australian Financial Review, the IVF industry is tipped by some analysts to be worth $20 billion in 2020 and the Genea range of products are examples of innovative new advances in the industry. With a system like Geri, the imagery allows embryologists to monitor the progress of an embryo daily without having to remove it from the comfort of an environmentally controlled incubator. Would-be parents in the future could also be able to watch their embryos divide and multiply on their tablets and smartphones.
Planet Innovation has the exclusive manufacturing rights to the two Genea Biomedx instruments which will be marketed by Merck globally through their existing sales channels.
In 2014 Planet Innovation opened its brand new Product Development and Manufacturing center which is an ISO 13485 accredited center for both the design and manufacturing of medical products.
Roger is the Marketing Director at Planet Innovation and a specialist marketing and communications professional with a focus on growing an organization’s reputation and revenue through strategic marketing and high-impact communications.
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Despite 30 years of IVF practice the process of freezing human embryos, known as vitrification, has remained extremely manual and susceptible to errors and inconsistencies by embryologists. In 2009, Genea Biomedx teamed up with Planet Innovation to solve this challenge by automating IVF vitrification and finally making the process consistent and standardised for labs around the world.
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PI Executive Director Eduardo Vom reveals the details to the microfluidic pod that was developed for the Gavi instrument to enable automated IVF vitrification for the first time in the world.
Product Development
Despite 30 years of IVF practice the process of freezing human embryos, known as vitrification, has remained extremely manual and susceptible to errors and inconsistencies by embryologists. In 2009, Genea Biomedx teamed up with Planet Innovation to solve this challenge by automating IVF vitrification and finally making the process consistent and standardised for labs around the world.
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