GE buys US$1.06bn of healthcare assets from Thermo Fisher Scientific
Expands life sciences business and extends bioprocessing manufacturing in Asia, the Americas and Europe
GE Healthcare is to acquire Thermo Fisher’s HyClone cell culture media and sera, and gene modulation and magnetic beads businesses for approximately US$1.06bn and expand its growing life sciences business. Last year, the businesses had combined annual revenues of $250m.
The acquired businesses will help GE to expand and accelerate the development of 'end-to-end' technologies for cell biology research, cell therapy and for the manufacture of innovative biological medicines and vaccines.
'Life Sciences is one of our strongest and fastest-growing business areas, driven by the world’s demand for improved diagnostics and new, safer medicines,' said John Dineen, President and CEO, GE Healthcare. 'This deal makes a good business even better and will help us realise our vision of bringing better healthcare to more people at lower cost.'
The cell culture that GE is acquiring, called HyClone, is used to manufacture vaccines and drugs to treat diseases such as cancer and rheumatoid arthritis. This, plus Thermo Fisher's sera products complement GE Healthcare’s established technologies for cell biology research and biopharmaceutical manufacturing.
This acquisition is a significant step forward for our customers in biopharmaceutical manufacturing
GE Healthcare will also acquire Thermo Fisher’s gene modulation technologies, which complement GE’s existing products for drug discovery research, and the Sera-Mag magnetic beads product line, which extends GE’s existing technologies in protein analysis and medical diagnostics.
The companies expect the deal to close in the first part of this year.
Kieran Murphy, President and CEO of GE Healthcare’s Life Sciences division added: 'This acquisition is a significant step forward for our customers in biopharmaceutical manufacturing. They will benefit immediately from an expanded range of 'start-to-finish' technologies that will help them improve product yields and reduce time-to-market. By expanding our production facilities to three continents, we will be able to offer the biopharmaceutical industry greater confidence in the security of supply of cell culture media and sera, a key part of their production process.'
