QIAGEN Partners With CENTOGENE, Boosts Bioinformatics Suite

QIAGEN (NASDAQ:QGEN) has been hogging the limelight on its recent partnership and co-marketing agreement with CENTOGENE AG. The partnership aims at delivering complete Sample to Insight research and clinical testing solutions to end users in the field of rare genetic conditions.

Per the collaboration agreement, QIAGEN will integrate its bioinformatics suite with CENTOGENE’s highly developed CentoMD rare disease variant database with the goal to improvise test understanding. Notably, this integration of CentoMD phenotype/genotype database is expected to considerably enhance QIAGEN Knowledge Base and QIAGEN Clinical Insight (QCI) bioinformatics solution.

Under the co-marketing agreement, QIAGEN will now act as the authorized and exclusive international commercial distribution partner of CentoMD. Also, QIAGEN’s bioinformatics solutions will be licensed by CENTOGENE to support the latter’s extensive rare disease diagnostic testing services.

In a bid to grow its bioinformatics portfolio that offers valuable observations into complex biological data, QIAGEN announced the acquisition of OmicSoft Corporation in January. Through this acquisition, QIAGEN gained access to OmicSoft’s powerful multi-omics data management infrastructure solutions as well as ‘omics’ data bank.

We believe the company’s latest partnership with CENTOGENE is strategic, taking into consideration the huge prospects of bioinformatics globally. According to a Markets and Markets report, the global bioinformatics market is projected to reach a worth of $16.18 billion by 2021, at a CAGR of 21.1%.

We believe increased spending on healthcare by government and private organizations, rising awareness triggering need for nucleic acid and protein sequencing and technological innovations and development on the back of successful partnerships between companies and research institutes will continue to drive growth in the bioinformatics market. Thus, the latest development will help QIAGEN cash in on the bountiful opportunities in the niche market.

Share Price Performance

QIAGEN has been gaining investor confidence on consistently encouraging results. Over the last six months, the company’s share price has outperformed the broader industry. The stock has gained 25.9%, as compared to the broader industry’s 12.3% gain. The company has also surpassed the 8.2% gain of the S&P 500 market over the same time frame.

Zacks Rank & Other Key Picks

QIAGEN currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Other top-ranked stocks in the medical sector are Abbott (NYSE:ABT) , IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDXX) and Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) . Abbott, IDEXX Laboratories and Thermo Fisher carry a Zacks Rank #2. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Abbott has a long-term expected earnings growth rate of 10.7%. The stock has rallied roughly 25.4% over the last six months.

IDEXX Laboratories has a long-term expected earnings growth rate of 19.8%. The stock has gained 40.3% last year.

Thermo Fisher has a long-term expected earnings growth rate of 16.3%. The stock has gained 24.8% last year.

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