Firm specializes in cell culture products for R&D as well as manufacture of biologics.

GE Healthcare has reached an agreement to acquire PAA Laboratories. The deal expands GE’s product and service offerings for cell biology research and for the discovery and manufacture of biopharmaceuticals including recombinant proteins, antibodies, and vaccines.

PAA Laboratories develops and manufactures specialized and innovative cell culture products such as media, sera, growth supplements, and reagents for use in biomedical research and in the production of protein-based pharmaceuticals. The global demand for media, sera, and reagents for cell culture is predicted to grow from $2.3 billion in 2009 to an estimated $3.9 billion by 2015, according to BCC Research. Additionally, the company, which has manufacturing facilities registered with the FDA, recently opened a site for powdered cell culture media.

PAA Laboratories’ products are reportedly complementary to GE Healthcare’s established technologies for cell biology research and biopharmaceutical purification. Combining the expertise of the two companies is expected to enable GE Healthcare to offer a substantially wider range of integrated products and services to the biopharmaceutical manufacturing industry.

“The acquisition of PAA Laboratories is a significant step forward for our life sciences business and for biopharmaceutical manufacturing globally,” comments Kieran Murphy, president and CEO of GE Healthcare Life Sciences. “GE Healthcare Life Sciences is well known for its expertise in the downstream processes of biopharmaceutical manufacturing.

“Adding upstream capabilities will enable us to provide an end-to-end, fully integrated service to our customers. We believe that an integrated approach, where we can help customers optimize every stage of their manufacturing process, has the potential to reduce cost of entry, deliver higher yields of finished product, and reduce time to market.”

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