Sartorius Adds to Analytical Instrument Business

Göettingen, Germany 3/3/17—Pharmaceutical and lab equipment provider Sartorius has acquired Essen BioScience from SFW Capital Partners for $320 million in cash. Essen BioScience provides instruments and reagents for real-time, live-cell analysis. The 150-employee company is expected to record $60 million in revenues in 2017. “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,” stated Sartorius CEO Joachim Kreuzburg. The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter.

Essen BioSciences’ IncuCyte ZOOM System enables high-definition phase-contrast, green fluorescence and red fluorescence imaging for quantitative analysis of cellular processes in real time, including cell monitoring, cell viability and live-cell assays. The purchase is Sartorius’ third in the past year of an analytical instrument provider serving the cellular analysis market.

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