Sartorius acquires cell screening specialist IntelliCyt

Sartorius has announced the acquisition of IntelliCyt, an award-winning innovator and manufacturer in the field of novel cell screening platforms for drug discovery.

The $90 million (68 million pounds) deal will allow Sartorius to expand its current lab portfolio into bioanalytics, thereby strengthening its offering for biopharmaceutical customers and academia.

IntelliCyt is based in New Mexico and is focused on pharmaceutical, biotech and academic customers. It has achieved strong double-digit annual growth during the past few years and is expected to generate sales revenues of more than $18 million in 2016.

Customers of both companies are expected to benefit from the combination of Sartorius' market presence and strong infrastructure, plus IntelliCyt's cell analysis platform expertise.

Joachim Kreuzburg, chief executive officer of Sartorius, said: "IntelliCyt has developed a powerful platform that integrates instruments, reagents and software seamlessly across the workflow. This is a great addition to our laboratory products portfolio."

Sartorius achieved double-digit growth in sales revenue and earnings during 2015, with sales forecast to grow by between ten and 14 percent on a constant currency basis this year.