Protagen Protein Services (PPS) has announced it will merge with GeneWerk, an Ampersand portfolio company. With the addition of GeneWerk’s unique capabilities in vector safety, characterisation, and functionality analysis, PPS will complement its current analytical testing offering in protein characterisation identity, purity, potency and capsid loading to become a full-service partner in gene therapy testing for the biopharmaceutical industry.
Today’s announced merger creates a leading partner for the worldwide biopharmaceutical industry to benefit from the most advanced, integrated set of analytical services capabilities in biologic development, especially in gene and cell therapy-related testing, from early development through drug approval to commercialisation. The combined organisation will have more than 175 employees across four sites in Europe and North America.
"The combination of Protagen Protein Services (PPS) and GeneWerk will establish a leading, analytical CRO serving the most thriving and innovative therapeutic segments within the global biopharmaceutical industry. We are excited to join forces with the GeneWerk team, who have established unique, worldwide excellence in cell and gene therapy and helped to establish the industry standard of integration site analysis for all vector delivery systems," outlined Martin Blüggel, CEO Protagen Protein Services GmbH.
"We are impressed by PPS’ scientific background and are eager to join with our scientific excellence. By integrating our analytic platforms, programs and expertise with PPS, we look forward to working closely with premier biopharmaceutical companies to design, generate and deliver integrated, best-in-class analytical data packages and strategic support along the full development spectrum from developability, lead optimisation, clone selection and process development to vector safety, gene editing targets, sequence analysis and gene expression," commented Dr. Manfred Schmidt, Managing Director and Co-Founder of GeneWerk GmbH.
As part of today’s announcement, PPS noted that it plans to significantly expand the laboratory capabilities of its US subsidiary BioAnalytix to include GeneWerk’s technology platforms and analytical capabilities in order to better serve clients located in the Boston area biotechnology hub and elsewhere in North America. Such service capabilities will include the determination of fusion sequences adjacent to known DNA or RNA fragments in minimal tissue samples down to the single cell level.
To support the integration and future growth of the combined business, PPS also announced that Ampersand Capital Partners has acquired a majority ownership stake in PPS from Zukunftsfond Heilbronn, PPS’s initial private equity investor.
Marina Pellon-Consunji, Partner at Ampersand Capital Partners, stated: "We have been looking for the right opportunity to expand the capabilities of our portfolio company GeneWerk. We are proud to partner with the PPS team and look forward to helping further build a leading provider of innovative, scientifically-differentiated testing and analytical services for large molecule therapeutics, particularly in the rapidly-growing cell and gene therapy industry."