JSR Life Sciences has acquired Swiss biotech Selexis for an undisclosed sum. The Geneva-headquartered company is the global leader in mammalian cell-line generation technologies and will boost JSR’s ability to develop and produce more high-quality biologics at a faster rate.

Selexis will be integrated within KBI Biopharma, a US-based contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) that JSR acquired in 2015.

“Combining KBI’s robust analytical, process development and reliable high-quality manufacturing capabilities with our Selexis SUREtechnology platform puts us in a position to offer current and future partners the ability to take their R&D programs from transfection to investigational new drug applications in less than nine months,” said Igor Fisch, CEO of Selexis. “By delivering the fastest timelines in the industry, our partners will benefit from substantial cost savings and patients will have access to critical drugs sooner.”

The two groups have a long history of collaboration, and KBI has performed development and/or manufacturing services using more than 15 different cell lines generated by Selexis since 2012.

Last month, KBI announced that it had agreed to buy the assets of San Diego-based Alliance Protein Laboratories, a leading analytical services company that specializes in biophysical characterization of biopharmaceuticals.

CDMO is also expanding its biopharmaceutical manufacturing capacities in Durham, North Carolina, and Boulder, Colorado, with completion due later this year.