Bio-Techne said yesterday it has agreed to acquire CyVek in a deal that could be worth up to $195 million depending on how milestones shake out over the next six years.
The acquisition is Bio-Techne’s third announced just since June, and comes just seven months after Bio-Techne laid the groundwork for a CyVek deal. In April, Bio-Techne said it made a $10 million equity investment in CyVek that included “a commitment” to acquire CyVek tied to meeting undisclosed future milestones.
“The ability to include the highly valued Bio-Techne reagent content on the CyVek testing platform is viewed as an ideal way to leverage the maximum value from our extensive reagents portfolio,” Charles R. Kummeth, Bio-Techne’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “We are very pleased that Cyvek met its milestone, allowing us to bring this innovative technology platform into Bio-Techne several months earlier than expected.”
In the deal disclosed today, Bio-Techne shelled out $60 million upfront. Bio-Techne also agreed to pay up to $35 million based on CyVek revenue over the 30-month period following the deal’s closing —which is subject in part to CyVek meeting pre-agreed commercial milestones—and “in excess of” $100 million tied to CyVek revenue through the year 2020.
Bio-Techne said it will finance its acquisition of CyVek through cash on hand plus a revolving line of credit facility.
Headquartered in Wallingford, Conn, with about 40 employees, privately-held CyVek has developed the CyPlexTM benchtop immunoassay technology, which is designed to provide “sample to answer” test results precisely and quickly in a sealed disposable device, by integrating a microfluidic cartridge with an analyzer.
Making CyPlex attractive was its demonstrated broad applicability across numerous sectors, including routine life sciences research applications, Bio-Techne said in taking the equity investment. At the time, Bio-Techne said commercial launch would be initially targeted towards customers who focus on translational research where sensitive, precise, accurate, multi-analyte results from small sample volumes are highly critical.
“We believe performance advantages can be derived through the parallel single-plex approach to multiplexing offered by the CyVek technology (CyPlex). This acquisition is a natural fit to Bio-Techne's product line and further complements the Protein Platforms business segment for Bio-Techne,” Kummeth added.
Bio-Techne develops and manufactures purified proteins—notably cytokines and growth factors, antibodies, immunoassays and biologically active small molecule compounds. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Bio-Techne has more than 1,000 employees worldwide and more than 24,000 products in its portfolio. During its fiscal year that ended June 30, Bio-Techne generated $357.8 million in net sales and $110.9 million in net earnings.
Earlier this year, the company began its aggressive growth strategy after completing a restructuring that combined under a common brand name the former Techne Corp.’s R&D Systems, BiosPacific, Tocris Biosciences, Boston Biochem and Bionostics products.
On June 17, Bio-Techne shelled out $300 million for ProteinSimple, whose Western blot products are among its offerings of systems and consumables designed to simplify protein analysis workflows. And on July 2, Bio-Techne said it closed on a $60 million cash acquisition of Novus Biologicals, a deal designed to expand the buyer’s antibody business while complementing its operations in developing and manufacturing purified proteins.
