StemCell Therapy

A medical technologist at CombiMatrix examines live tissue looking for fetal cells to analyze. (File Photo)

From left, medical technologists Lilybeth Wilkens, Meg Purayil, and Catherine Marte work on live samples of tissue at CombiMatrix, a genetic testing lab in Irvine. (File Photo)

Catherine Marte works on live samples of tissue at CombiMatrix, a genetic testing lab in Irvine. (File Photo)

Chief Executive Mark McDonough stands in the lobby of his company, CombiMatrix Corp., in Irvine. The company hopes its testing method will be used to analyze cases of women whove had multiple miscarriages. (File Photo)

Irvine-based CombiMatrix Corp. has agreed to be acquired in an all-stock merger by San Francisco-based Invitae Corp. for $33 million.

The deal between two genetic biotech firms is subject to approval by CombiMatrixs stockholders and regulatory agencies.

CombiMatrix is a molecular diagnostics company that studies theremains of lost pregnancies, extracting DNA that is analyzed to uncover genetic abnormalities that can help explain why the women who gave the samples have had multiple miscarriages. It also does pre-implantation genetic diagnostics and screening, prenatal diagnosis andDNA-based testing forgenetic abnormalities.

In 2014, the companys chief executive, a former Navy navigator, told the Register the companys methods would soon become the standards for analyzing pregnancy loss and prenatal testing.

Merging with Invitae, which also specializes in genetic material and hereditary disorders, should expand the scope of CombiMatrixs reach.

By coming together with Invitae, we believe we can synergistically combine their scale, technology and expertise with the CombiMatrix product offering, human capital and sales channels to achieve even greater success in the future for the company and our shareholders, Mark McDonough, president and chief executive officer of CombiMatrix, said in a statement.

CombiMatrix will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Invitae, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company declined to provide any information not found in SEC documents, such as potential job impacts or executive changes.

For many people, preparing to have a child is their introduction to the power of genetics to inform health decisions, Sean George, chief executive officer of Invitae, said in a statement. The combination of Invitae and CombiMatrix will expand our ability to provide actionable answers to the complex questions that can arise when starting a family.

Testing has become more common as women have babies later in life. In 2016, theaverage age when women have their first child was 28. In 1970, it was 24.6, according to the CDC.

McDonough, in 2014, said he saw a market of up to $200 million a year for so called microarray prenatal testing and a$330 million marketfor recurrent pregnancy loss.

CombiMatrixspun off of Newport Beach-basedAcacia Research Corp. in 2007. It got its start supplyinglaboratories conducting microarray tests with biotech tools before founding a genetic testing lab.

In 2010, it moved to Irvine from Seattle.

Invitaeon Monday said it is also acquiring Cambridge, Mass.-based Good Start Genetics, another pregnancy-related molecular diagnostics company that specializes in preimplantation and carrier screening.

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Irvine-based CombiMatrix in $33 million merger deal with Bay Area genetics firm - OCRegister

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