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bioMérieux
acquires BioFire Diagnostics
09-05-2013
EDIT CONNECT
SHARING OPTIONS:
MARCY
L'ETOILE, France—In-vitro diagnostics company bioMérieux
has announced the
signing of an agreement for the acquisition of privately held BioFire
Diagnostics Inc., a Salt Lake City-based company specializing in molecular
biology. The acquisition, and pursuant access
to BioFire's PCR FilmArray
system, is expended to help bioMérieux strengthen its position in the field of
infectious disease diagnostics.
Per the terms of the agreement, bioMérieux will acquire 100
percent ownership of BioFire for $450 million, as
well as BioFire's net
financial debt. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions,
including certain regulatory approvals. The deal is
expected to close by the
end of fiscal 2013 or early 2014.
"We could not have found a better
shareholder than
bioMérieux, world leader in clinical and industrial microbiology. This is an
exciting next step in the evolution of BioFire, and it
will allow us to achieve
our mission of helping to make the world a healthier and safer place and to
continue to support our biodefense customers in
the United States Department of
Defense and allied forces," Kirk Ririe, CEO and founder of BioFire, said in a
press release. "bioMérieux's
commercial network will further boost sales of our
flagship product, FilmArray. In addition, the Company's unique know-how in the
field of infectious
diseases will contribute to the development of new panels,
creating very attractive prospects for the future."
Acquisition costs for bioMérieux are expected to total 6
million euros (approximately $7.8 million), and the transaction will
be funded
through indebtedness. No details were released as to whether bioMérieux expects
any synergies from the acquisition, but revenue from BioFire
is forecasted to
boost bioMérieux's sales by roughly $80 million on a full-year basis. Given the
company's plans to push the BioFire product line
commercially, the transaction
is expected to be dilutive to current operating income before non-recurring
items in 2014 and 2015.
BioFire's multiplex PCR FilmArray system is a simple, rapid
molecular biology solution that provides a syndromic
approach to diagnosing
infectious diseases.
The system analyzes a syndrome—a set of symptoms—and uses a
single reagent to
identify the disease-causing organisms responsible for that
syndrome, be they viruses or bacteria. In addition, FilmArray combines all
molecular
diagnostics steps into a single process. BioFire's first commercially
launched solution on the system is a respiratory panel that can test for 20
viruses and bacteria, with results in an hour.
A sepsis panel for the system
gained U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval at the end of June, and development
is underway for a gastrointestinal panel and a meningitis panel. BioFire is expected to see sales of $70 million in 2013,
$40 million of which is
expected to result from FilmArray.
With 85 percent of
bioMérieux's sales in clinical
applications coming from infectious disease diagnostics, BioFire and the
FilmArray system will allow it to further grow
its expertise and footprint in
this area. And with bioMérieux's commercial network, BioFire's offerings can be
further developed and more widely
marketed.
"The acquisition of BioFire fits perfectly into bioMérieux's
selective strategy for
external growth. Following the AES purchase, which
strengthened our leadership in industrial applications, the purchase of ARGENE,
which showed very strong organic growth of 31 percent at the end of
June 2013,
as well as our recently signed partnership with Quanterix in ultrasensitive and
multiplex immunoassays, this new acquisition represents a decisive step for our
company," Jean-Luc Belingard,
chairman and CEO of bioMérieux, commented in a
statement. "It enables us to reinforce our infectious disease franchise, our
main area of
specialization. FilmArray is the only system that makes it
possible to detect disease-causing viruses and bacteria using a single reagent.
As such, it
eliminates the borders between different technologies, simplifying
the diagnosis of infectious diseases and delivering faster results for better
patient care.
"On all our markets, we now have a complete portfolio of
particularly innovative
technologies with two key benefits: enhanced medical
value of diagnostics and optimized workflows in medical laboratories. The Salt
Lake City BioFire
's site will become our hub for our expansion in molecular
biology. We are especially pleased to welcome the talented employees of
BioFire, who will
work in close collaboration with bioMérieux teams at our
Grenoble and Verniolle sites," Belingard concluded.
SOURCE: bioMérieux press release Code: E09041301 Back |
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