Sartorius signs agreement to acquire Polyplus for €2.4bn

Sartorius has said it will acquire Polyplus for around €2.4bn from private investors to bolster its activities supplying cell and gene therapy companies.

Polyplus, which has around 270 employees across France, Belgium, the US and China, develops and produces transfection as well as other DNA/RNA delivery reagents and plasmid DNA.

These are key components in the production of viral vectors used in cell and gene therapies and other advanced medicinal therapeutic products.

The deal, which will be carried out through Sartorius’ French unit Stedim Biotech, is expected to close during the third quarter of this year.

René Fáber, member of the board of directors and chief executive officer of Sartorius Stedim Biotech, said: "The innovative solutions of Polyplus are highly complementary to our portfolio, in particular to our offering of cell culture media and critical components for the development and manufacture of advanced therapies, and there are also strong synergies with our portfolio of downstream solutions for the manufacture of gene therapeutics."

Polyplus has been expanding its focus beyond transfection reagents through acquisitions in adjacent technologies such as plasmid design, and protein and plasmid manufacturing.

In December last year, it acquired Bio Elpida, a French biotechnology contract development and manufacturing (CDMO) company providing pre-clinical and clinical development services for cell therapy and biologics.

In the last two years, it has also acquired CDMO Xpress Biologics to expand its plasmid DNA engineering technology and services portfolio, and E-Zyvec to expand process economics optimisation efforts for cell and gene therapy developers.

The company is expected to generate sales in the ‘upper double-digit million-euro range’ and a ‘very substantial’ core profit margin in 2023.

Mario Philips, chief executive officer of Polyplus, said the deal was “a major milestone” in the history of Polyplus.

“We would be excited to join forces with a world class bioprocess market leader as Sartorius Stedim Biotech," he said. "Our combined portfolios would create a unique ability to optimise the total process workflow to deliver unparalleled value for cell/gene and DNA/RNA therapy customers, in a strong effort to make these critical needed therapies more affordable.”