Sartorius has signed an agreement to acquire U.S.-based Essen BioScience Inc., a provider of cell-based assays and instrumentation used for drug discovery and research applications. The transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close 1Q17.
 
Sartorius will purchase Essen BioScience from SFW Capital Partners for $320 million in cash. Essen expects to generate revenues of approximately $60 million in 2017, with continued double-digit growth. The company is headquartered in Ann Arbor, MI, with sales entities in the UK and Japan, and currently employs approximately 150 people.
 
Novel analytical methods are crucial to enable progress in the advancing areas of immuno-oncology, antibody discovery and stem cell research. Essen BioScience, which specializes in instrumentation, software and reagents for real-time live-cell imaging and data analysis, helps users accelerate discovery and development of new drugs by providing insight into the mechanisms of disease.

Sartorius will significantly expand its portfolio for bioanalytics, a field the company has recently entered via the IntelliCyt acquisition in 2016. “With the Essen real-time, live-cell analysis platform, we will add another key technology for advancing and accelerating drug discovery applications to our lab divisions’ portfolio,” said Joachim Kreuzburg, chief executive officer of Sartorius. “This powerful technology offers important synergies with our IntelliCyt business. Going forward, Sartorius will be able to provide our customers the broadest and, we believe, the most innovative portfolio for cell analysis in the industry.”
 
Brett Williams, president and chief executive officer of Essen, said, “We are excited to become part of Sartorius as a ‘Center of Excellence’ and build an industry- leading cell analytics portfolio together with the IntelliCyt business. This is not only a great opportunity to build upon Essen’s market-leading position, but also to continue development and introduction of transformative solutions for life sciences. In addition, we believe that the combination with Sartorius will provide exceptional opportunities for sustained growth and development for our employees, customers and business partners.”