Biotage to extend chromatography offering through $190m Astrea buy

Swedish separations company Biotage is set to acquire Astrea Bioseparations to develop its chromatography services into biologics and advanced therapeutics.

Subject to closing conditions, the deal will see $190 million paid at the time of closing in shares of Biotage stock, as well as a potential $45 million to be made in milestone-based cash payments. Additionally, the acquisition will provide Gamma Biosciences (which acquired Astrea – formerly known as Prometic Bioseparations – in November 2019)  a capital injection of $25 million.

The aim of the acquisition is to create a global chromatography firm, which can provide its customers with a mix of products and services across various markets. Astrea already supplies adsorbents, columns, chromatography resins, and nanofiber-based purification technology to be used in biomanufacturing and last month the firm bought Delta Precision to enable its product offering to include an entire range of chromatography columns for biomanufacturing.

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“The acquisition represents a great strategic fit both for us and Astrea,” a spokesperson for Biotage told BioProcess Insider.

“Biotage already has a strong position in small molecule purification, but we have been wanting to strengthen our offering and expertise targeting biopharmaceuticals and advanced therapeutics. With Astrea we can do this. Now we can extend our offering targeting large molecules from drug discovery and development to scale up and commercial manufacturing with higher cross-margins and recurring consumables-based revenues.”

This is not the first chromatography bolstering acquisition Biotage has made. In December 2018, the firm bought California-based private firm PhyNexus to bring an automated platform based on Dual Flow Chromatography to the company’s bioprocess offering and increase the firm’s place in the downstream space.

The spokesperson noted “several advantages” associated with the Astrea acquisition.

“We will be able to extend our product offering targeting biopharmaceuticals and advanced therapeutics all the way to scale-up and commercial manufacturing. In addition, Astrea has a near-term pipeline of new product launches and strong expertise in large molecules bringing us new know-how. We will of course be able reach a completely new customer base with this new broader offering, which we are looking forward to.”

Once the deal is closed, over 150 Astrea employees will become part of Biotage’s workforce.