Sartorius bolsters CGT portfolio with $118m stake in CellGenix

Sartorius has acquired a majority stake in CellGenix for $118 million, expanding its cell and gene therapy portfolio.

Sartorius has acquired 51% of reagent manufacturing firm CellGenix for around $118 million in cash with plans to buy the remaining shares in 2023 and 2026.

The firm anticipates that the acquisition will expand its cell and gene therapy portfolio through the addition of cytokines and media.

Image: iStock/Zhanna Hapanovich

“CellGenix has an excellent reputation on the market and brings in high technological expertise and considerable regulatory experience in one of the fastest-growing fields of the biopharma sector,” said René Fáber member of the executive board for the Bioprocess Solutions Division of Sartorius.

“Together, we will support our customers even better in fast-tracking their drug candidates efficiently through the various steps in the development of medicines so that innovative therapies can reach patients faster.”

CellGenix is headquartered in Freiburg, Germany and has a sales subsidiary located in Boston, Massachusetts, which manufactures cytokines used to produce cell and gene therapy products.

Sartorius plans to expand the Freiburg site and establish it as a “center of excellence” for the manufacture of critical raw materials for the cell and gene therapy market. However, no further details regarding the expansion have been disclosed.

It is also unclear as to whether CellGenix’ team of around 70 people will become Sartorius’ employees.

M&A allowed the firm to raise its guidance in February 2021 with Sartorius upping its consolidated sales revenue from €4 billion ($4.7 billion) to €5 billion by 2025.

Sartorius said it also expects to see its sales revenue increase in 2021 by around 19% to 25% with acquisitions contributing 5.5 percentage points to this growth.