Sartorius has entered into a definitive agreement to merge purification specialist BIA Separations into its subgroup, Sartorius Stedim Biotech, in a transaction totaling $423m of which $282m will be paid in cash and $141m in Sartorius Stedim Biotech shares.
Both parties have agreed on three tranches of earn-out payments based on performance over the next five financial years. The transaction, which is subject to customary regulatory conditions, is plammed to close in late 2020.
BIA’s technology for manufacturing scale purification is used in production of commercialised advanced therapeutics and the company has novel drug candidates in the clinical pipeline.
“Combining the teams and technologies of Sartorius and BIA will create a premium offering for the manufacturing of advanced therapies. The goal of our partnership is to enable such therapeutics to reach more patients faster and we are committed to continue delivering relevant innovations across the entire production chain,” commented Joachim Kreuzburg, CEO of Sartorius.
Aleš Strancar, founder and CEO of BIA Separations, commented: “Partnering with Sartorius provides BIA Separations with a global sales and service network which will grow the sale of BIA Separations’ products by an order of magnitude in the coming years. I am especially excited that our combined R&D groups will result in one of the strongest development teams in bioprocessing worldwide which will rapidly increase the number of products under development while substantially reducing time to market.”
René Fáber, the Head of the Sartorius Bioprocess Solutions Division, said: “We are really excited and very much looking forward to joining forces with BIA’s experienced and highly talented team. Together, we will continue to invest into innovation and growth, accelerate the utilization of their superior solutions and provide customers worldwide with offerings that will advance their important work.”
