Sartorius said today it has acquired IntelliCyt for $90 million cash, in a deal that expands the buyer’s portfolio into bioanalytics by adding the developer of cell screening platforms for drug discovery.
IntelliCyt manufactures and sells integrated instrumentation, software, and reagent solutions designed to facilitate the study of cells and their components. Most recently last week, IntelliCyt partnered with Notable Labs to advance development of a predictive personalized medicine platform using IntelliCyt’s iQue® Screener PLUS platform.
iQue is an integrated instrument, software, and reagent system with high-throughput sampling capability designed to enable rapid assessment of cells and beads in suspension in 96-, 384-, and 1536-well plates.
Two weeks ago, the company introduced a new addition to IQue featuring a 561-nm solid-state laser. In addition to the platform’s standard violet-blue-red laser configuration, iQue Screener PLUS has begun offering a violet-yellow-blue laser configuration, which according to IntelliCyt will open new avenues of exploration into the immune system and other suspension cells.
“This is a great addition to our laboratory products portfolio,” Joachim Kreuzburg said in a statement. “Novel cell screening methods are crucial to enable scientific progress in the fast-expanding research areas of immuno-oncology, antibody discovery, and immune targets. IntelliCyt has developed a powerful platform that integrates instruments, reagents, and software seamlessly across the workflow.
Sartorius, which has manufacturing and sales sites in 110 countries, employs 6200 people and earned sales revenue of more than €1.1 billion ($1.2 billion) in 2015.
Headquartered in Albuquerque, NM, IntelliCyt employs 55 people and is expected this year to generate sales revenues of more than $18 million, up 34% from $13.4 million last year. The company is also expected to break even on underlying EBITDA by the end of 2017.
Included in the purchase price was approximately $5 million in future tax savings.
“By coupling the global market presence and strong infrastructure of Sartorius with IntelliCyt’s enabling cell analysis platform, we will be better able to deliver value to our customers, further penetrate our core markets, and grow the business to the next level,” added IntelliCyt’s founder, President and CEO R. Terry Dunlay.
