Biotage Takes UK’s ATDBio
Sweden’s Biotage, a provider of systems and products for drug discovery and development, analytical testing and water and environmental testing, has acquired the UK’s ATDBio for about £45 million on a debt-free and cash-free basis.
The Uppsala-based company said ATDBio’s expertise in highly complex DNA and RNA production will provide market access and know-how in the rapidly growing oligonucleotide sector. This market, Biotage said, is currently being driven by demand for high-quality DNA and RNA molecules and other oligonucleotide analogues in light of the Coronavirus pandemic, plus the potential of other nucleic-acid based therapeutics, vaccines and molecular diagnostics.
Biotage president and CEO Tomas Blomquist described the companies as “highly complementary.” He commented: “Starting from peptide purification and higher-volume small molecule research, we have already expanded into lipid purification for use in mRNA vaccines as well as DNA plasmid purification including viral purification for gene therapy. Now we are moving into the attractive new oligonucleotide market.”
Tom Brown Jr, director at ATDBio, added: “We will now be able to scale up even further thanks to the global presence and world-leading separation science expertise of Biotage. We will continue to innovate, helping our customers to bring the next generation of nucleic acid molecular diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics to the market.”
ATDBio has laboratories in Southampton and Oxford and generated net sales of £3.5 million in 2020. It has 20 employees.
Author: Elaine Burridge, Freelance Journalist
