Bio-Techne Corporation is paying $250 million in cash to acquire liquid biopsy manufacturer Exosome Diagnostics. As part of the deal whose completion is expected toward the end of July, it also will pay a consideration of up to $325 million on the achievement of certain future milestones.

The transaction, potentially the 14^th in five years for the US company headquartered at Minneapolis, Minnesota, is designed to boost Bio-Techne’s position in the noninvasive liquid biopsy market. It will be financed through a combination of cash on hand and a revolving line of credit.

Among other products, Exosome Diagnostics, based at Waltham, Massachusetts, markets a urine-based test to assist physicians in determining the need for a prostate biopsy in patients with an ambiguous PSA test result. The company has filed around 200 filed patents that it said protect the technology and enable the development of novel, highly sensitive diagnostics in various pathologies – for the most part, cancers – that currently have difficult or no current diagnostic solutions.

Charles R. Kummeth, CEO of Bio-Techne, said the two companies have multiple synergies. In particular, he said, Exosome will complement his company’s molecular pathology business, Advanced Cellular Diagnostics (ACD), “a robust growth segment " He said Bio-Techne will leverage its strong brand and market leadership position to extend its core competencies to the science of exosomes and cell free-DNA (cfDNA) biology and their utility as novel diagnostic tools.”

“This is a very strategic acquisition for us as we also expand in the CAR-T cell marketplace, leveraging our growing critical mass in cell culture-focused product lines,” Kummeth said, The buy, he added, will allow the company to sell solutions to the entire workflow of cancer: research, diagnostics and therapeutics. Exosome Diagnostics’ CEO, John Boyce, said the link-up with Bio-Techne, a company with global resources, will enable it to take its technology to the next level.