Sartorius announces acquisition of Cellca

Sartorius has announced that it will be purchasing the German life science company Cellca through its Sartorius Stedim Biotech division.

Cellca is a leader in cell line and process development for large-scale protein production of biologics in mammalian cells. Its major customers are biopharmaceutical companies and biosimilar firms that do not or only partly conduct their process development in-house.

Founded in 2005, the newly-acquired company currently has around 30 employees and generated sales revenue of approximately six million euros (4.26 million pounds) in 2014.

Through this acquisition, Sartorius Stedim Biotech will be able to further expand its service offering for process development, having already done so through its recent purchases of BioOutsource and TAP Biosystems.

Reinhard Vogt, member of the executive committee for marketing and sales at Sartorius Stedim Biotech, said: "Together with our single-use products, media and testing services, we are creating an attractive package, above all for young biopharmaceutical companies that need robust processes for the manufacture of their biologics."

At the end of last year, Sartorius signed a long-term syndicated loan agreement with an international bank syndicate led by BNP Paribas, Commerzbank and LBBW, providing it with enough capital to support its future growth objectives.