On Monday, GE Healthcare announced completion of their acquisition of Thermo Fisher Scientific’s HyClone cell culture media, sera and process liquids; Dharmacon RNAi gene modulation tools; and Sera-Mag magnetic beads businesses. In January, GE Healthcare and Thermo Fisher Scientific announced that they had entered into an agreement, which would allow GE to acquire these businesses for approximately $1.06 billion. This was a win for both businesses in that it expanded GE’s Life Sciences product portfolio and enabled Thermo Fisher’s European approval of its $13.6 billion Life Technologies acquisition.

With their completed acquisition, GE Healthcare adds significantly to their strategy of providing “end-to-end” technologies for cell biology research, cell therapy applications and biopharmaceutical manufacturing. I had the chance to talk with Dr. Nigel Darby, Vice President BioProcess, GE Healthcare Life Sciences, in January after the acquisition was announced. Dr. Darby shared GE’s plans to leverage the acquisition to enhance the customer experience and provide start to finish technologies for biopharmaceutical manufacturing. Please see the blog “GE Healthcare’s Acquisition of Thermo Fisher Scientific’s Cell Culture, Gene Modulation, and Magnetic Beads Businesses a Win for Both” for more information.

With HyClone cell culture media, sera and process liquids; Dharmacon RNAi gene modulation tools; and Sera-Mag magnetic beads businesses, GE is now able to provide insights into several different application areas that support all stages of drug development from discovery to commercialization.

In a press release issued Monday, Kieran Murphy, President and CEO of GE Healthcare’s Life Sciences business said, “GE Healthcare has built a world-class set of technologies for the life sciences sector, and these new businesses will strongly enhance our current offerings. As well as providing us with new tools for drug discovery and biomedical research, our customers in biopharmaceutical manufacturing will benefit straight away from an expanded range of “start-to-finish” technologies that will help them improve product yields and reduce time-to-market. Through this acquisition we immediately expand our cell culture media production capabilities in Asia, the Americas and Europe, enabling us to offer the biopharmaceutical industry greater confidence in the security of supply of a key part of their production process”.

On February 3^rd Thermo Fisher Scientific announced the completion of their acquisition of Life Technologies. Thermo Fisher Scientific has identified several benefits for the acquisition of Life Technologies including the ability to provide complementary product offerings to their existing product portfolio, particularly in emerging markets. In addition, Life Technologies’ e-commerce platform will be coupled with Thermo Fisher’s existing sales channels to create a powerful commercial infrastructure. The acquisition also creates shareholder value. In a February 3^rd press release, Marc N. Casper, president and chief executive officer of Thermo Fisher Scientific said, “With the addition of Life Technologies, we are in an even stronger position to help our customers achieve their goals for innovation and productivity.”