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End-to-end workflow
March 2013
EDIT CONNECT
SHARING OPTIONS:
CARLSBAD, Calif.—Life Technologies Corp. has acquired BAC
BV, a privately held company based in the Netherlands that Life views as a
leader in
the discovery, development and manufacture of protein purification
products. The acquisition expands Life's capabilities and product offerings in
the
growing market of biopharmaceutical research and manufacturing. Financial
terms of the deal were not disclosed. The tuck-in acquisition of BAC is
expected to be neutral to the company's overall return on invested capital
three years after close.
"The acquisition of BAC helps accelerate the growth of
Life's BioProduction business, specifically purification, and positions Life
Technologies as a leading provider of end-to-end solutions that are widely
utilized in the bioprocess workflow," says Tony Hunt, head of bioproduction
at
Life. "BAC is known as the 'affinity expert' and the leader in the development
and production of protein purification products. We recognized the
value of
bringing BAC into the Life portfolio. With their unique set of innovative and
proprietary affinity ligands and Life's world-class POROS
resins, we are
confident that our integrated portfolio will uniquely address the market's
unmet needs and expand our reach into existing and new
segments. Combining
BAC's current portfolio and pipeline with our pre-existing portfolio expands
Life's product offering and enables us to compete
more fully across the protein
purification market. We intend to immediately integrate the portfolios and
leverage the Life commercial platform to drive
accelerated growth in this
market."
Bioprocessing is the production and analytical testing of
biologically based therapeutics, which are developed in cultured cells or
microorganisms, and include drugs, vaccines, biosimilars and gene and cell
therapies. Life's Gibco brand is the market leader in cell culture media, a
position it has held for 50 years, and the company more recently integrated
its
POROS brand of chromatography resins for purification of therapeutic products
into its Bioproduction portfolio.
The acquisition expands Life's existing portfolio by adding
BAC's proprietary affinity ligands to the company's POROS resins. As the
name
implies, affinity ligands are molecules capable of binding with very high
affinity to specific proteins, and are typically attached to
chromatography
resins in a production-scale, biopurification process. The purification of
biotherapeutic proteins involves linking multiple filtration
and chromatography
steps together, with each step providing a higher level of purity, Hunt
explains.
"Most commonly, three chromatography-based protein
purification steps are used," he says. "The first step is called capture
chromatography.
Here, affinity chromatography is routinely used. In this step,
an affinity tag that is specific for the protein of interest is used. It is a
highly
selective step, and the backbone of the purification process. The second
and third steps are both polish chromatography steps, responsible for removing
trace levels of impurities. The technology strength of Life Technologies
centers on high-performance, ion-exchange chromatography resins for polish
chromatography. BAC specializes in the development and commercialization of
novel affinity ligands. Together, Life Technologies and BAC can now develop
novel affinity chromatography resins and provide high-performance
chromatography products for the entire bioprocessing workflow."
"We are looking forward to developing and providing unique,
enabling products from our combined portfolios and
capabilities to our
purification customers," says Dr. Laurens Sierkstra, CEO of BAC.
Sierkstra and an additional 34 employees
will join Life
Technologies. Current BAC facilities, a manufacturing site in Naarden and
R&D facility in Leiden, Netherlands, will remain in
operation. Code: E031310 Back |
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