Purification specialist BIA Separations to become part of Sartorius

BIA Separations will be Sartorius’ center of excellence for purification of cell and gene therapeutics

05-Oct-2020 - Germany

Sartorius announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to merge purification specialist BIA Separations into its subgroup Sartorius Stedim Biotech in a transaction totaling 360 million euros of which 240 million euros will be paid in cash and 120 million euros in Sartorius Stedim Biotech shares. Both parties have further 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 expected to close in late 2020, and therefore will have no material impact on Sartorius’ 2020 results.

BIA Separations develops and manufactures products for purification and analysis of large biomolecules, such as viruses, plasmids and mRNA, which are used in cell and gene therapies and other advanced therapies. BIA’s technology for manufacturing scale purification is already used in production of the first commercialized advanced therapeutics and the company also has a strong presence with such 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.

Expecting continued very strong double-digit sales growth over the next few years, BIA is forecasted to earn sales revenue of approx. 25 million euros in 2020 at profit margins that will be accretive to both the underlying EBITDA margins of Sartorius’ Bioprocess Solutions segment and of the overall Sartorius Group.

Founded in 1998, BIA Separations has invented and commercialized the unique CIM (Convective Interaction Media) monolith chromatography technology. In addition, it offers analytical technologies for process monitoring and optimization. At its headquarters in Ajdovščina, Slovenia, BIA employs a workforce of some 120 people. Following its strong growth, the company is currently more than quadrupling its production capacity, which will be operational in beginning of 2021. Furthermore, the company is significantly expanding its market leading process development services.

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.”

https://www.analytica-world.com/en/news/1168169/purification-specialist-bia-separations-to-become-part-of-sartorius.html