Sartorius has agreed buy cell-based assay and instrumentation firm Essen BioScience from its private equity owner SFW Capital Partners for $320 million cash. Essen develops instruments, software, and reagents for live-cell imaging and data analysis. The firm’s flagship IncuCyte® platform for real-time, quantitative live-cell imaging and analysis was launched in 2006.
Sartorius moved into the field of bioanalytics last year through the $90 million acquisition of cell-screening platform firm IntelliCyt. “With the Essen real-time, live-cell analysis platform, we will add another key technology for advancing and accelerating drug discovery applications to our lab divisions’ portfolio,” commented Joachim Kreuzburg, Ph.D., Sartorius CEO. “This powerful technology offers important synergies with our IntelliCyt business. Going forward, Sartorius will be able to provide our customers the broadest and, we believe, the most innovative portfolio for cell analysis in the industry.”
Sartorius said Essen expects to achieve sales revenues in the region of $60 million in 2017.
Last month Sartorius reported joining the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) Corporate Partnership Program for training and science education.
