OpGen Subsidiary Ares Genetics Announces its Move to New Vienna Location and Provides Update on Business Growth
March 01 2023 - 7:30AM
OpGen, Inc. (Nasdaq: OPGN, “OpGen”), a precision medicine company
harnessing the power of molecular diagnostics and informatics to
help combat infectious disease, and its subsidiary, Ares Genetics
(Ares), which strives to become a leader in bacterial genomics and
AI-powered prediction of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), today
announced completion of its move from the incubator space at the
Vienna Bio Center into a brand new and tailored state of the art
facility at the Abundance Gate in Vienna, Austria. Ares Genetics
will utilize approximately 5,000 square feet of dedicated
laboratory and bioinformatics office space that has been built out
to its specifications, bringing our Austrian operations under one
roof for the first time since its inception in 2017.
“The move is one of several milestones that will
help support our further growth plans for the product and NGS
service business,” says Dr. Arne Materna, CEO of Ares. “With recent
significant growth in our ARESdb database asset from 102,000
datasets to over 130,000 datasets in Q1 of this year alone, we
believe we are well positioned to continue executing on our plans
to expand and improve our menu of accurate AI models to predict
antibiotic susceptibility from genomic data for a comprehensive
range of drug pathogen combinations.”
The expansion of ARESdb content is driven by
existing and new partnerships with a European national reference
lab and two state public health labs in the U.S., and by Ares’
state of the art curation process selectively incorporating high
quality data from public sources into ARESdb. An additional 2,100
isolates collected during OpGen’s Unyvero UTI urinary tract
infection clinical trial and the collaboration with a major U.S.
CLIA lab are scheduled to enrich the proprietary contents of ARESdb
in the coming weeks.
After optimizing and scaling up the validated
workflow for isolate sequencing (ARESiss) launched last year for
U.S customers in the NGS service lab in Rockville, Maryland, the
OpGen and Ares teams have now successfully completed the next
generation sequencing of clinical isolates collected during the
Unyvero UTI trial, which we believe demonstrates the lab’s
capability to deliver quality at scale as required for larger,
commercial customer projects.
Theo deVos, SVP Corporate Development and
Operations for Ares in the U.S. commented, “Based on the progress
we have made on the laboratory side here in the U.S. as well as
with our unique ARESdb data asset, we have started processing
samples under commercial contracts. Further to the UTI study
isolate sequencing, a first smaller commercial project has already
been completed at the Rockville lab, and we are set up for a larger
customer pilot project that we expect to start in the coming weeks,
thereby we anticipate beginning to generate Ares related service
revenue and intend to grow our commercial footprint in the
U.S.”
It is becoming well recognized that traditional
methods of infection prevention for detection of
healthcare-associated outbreaks deploy a reactive approach that
frequently misidentifies and misses transmissions. Whole genome
sequencing (WGS) surveillance provides high resolution data that
enables rapid and targeted outbreak containment. The recent webinar
presented on February 28, 2023 by Alexander Sundermann, Assistant
Professor of Infectious Diseases at the University of Pittsburgh,
delivered compelling data on the utility of WGS surveillance and
its benefits for patient care and hospital cost savings. We are
focused on addressing this market through our ARESiss WGS service
labs in the US and Austria, and the AREScloud sequence analysis
software with reporting tailored for genomic surveillance.
About OpGen, Inc.
OpGen, Inc. (Rockville, Md., U.S.A.) is a
precision medicine company harnessing the power of molecular
diagnostics and bioinformatics to help combat infectious disease.
Along with our subsidiaries, Curetis GmbH and Ares Genetics GmbH,
we are developing and commercializing molecular microbiology
solutions helping to guide clinicians with more rapid and
actionable information about life threatening infections to improve
patient outcomes, and decrease the spread of infections caused by
multidrug-resistant microorganisms, or MDROs. OpGen’s current
product portfolio includes Unyvero, Acuitas AMR Gene Panel, and the
ARES Technology Platform including ARESdb, NGS technology and
AI-powered bioinformatics solutions for antibiotic response
prediction including ARESiss, ARESid, and AREScloud, as well as the
Curetis CE-IVD-marked PCR-based SARS-CoV-2 test kit.
For more information, please visit
www.opgen.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release includes statements regarding
the move of Ares Genetics to the new Abundance Gate facility and
the growth of its ARESdb database and related service offerings.
These statements and other statements regarding OpGen’s future
plans and goals constitute "forward-looking statements" within the
meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section
21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and are intended to
qualify for the safe harbor from liability established by the
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements
are subject to risks and uncertainties that are often difficult to
predict, are beyond our control, and which may cause results to
differ materially from expectations. Factors that could cause our
results to differ materially from those described include, but are
not limited to, the success of our commercialization efforts, our
ability to successfully, timely and cost-effectively develop, seek
and obtain regulatory clearance for and commercialize our product
and services offerings, the rate of adoption of our products and
services by hospitals and other healthcare providers, the fact that
we may not effectively use proceeds from recent financings, the
continued realization of expected benefits of our business
combination transaction with Curetis GmbH, the continued impact of
COVID-19 on the Company’s operations, financial results, and
commercialization efforts as well as on capital markets and general
economic conditions, our ability to satisfy debt obligations under
our loan with the European Investment Bank, the effect of the
military action in Russia and Ukraine on our distributors,
collaborators and service providers, our liquidity and working
capital requirements, the effect on our business of existing and
new regulatory requirements, our ability to realize any anticipated
benefits from the reverse stock split, including maintaining its
listing on the Nasdaq Capital Market and attracting new investors,
and other economic and competitive factors. For a discussion of the
most significant risks and uncertainties associated with OpGen's
business, please review our filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance
on these forward-looking statements, which are based on our
expectations as of the date of this press release and speak only as
of the date of this press release. We undertake no obligation to
publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as
a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
OpGen:Oliver SchachtPresident and
CEOInvestorRelations@opgen.com
OpGen Investor & Press Contact:Alyssa
FactorEdison Group afactor@edisongroup.com
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