Our partner Sartorius, through its French subgroup Sartorius Stedim Biotech, has signed an agreement to acquire the company Polyplus - a provider of innovative advanced technologies for cell and gene therapies based in France. Polyplus transfection reagents and plasmids are key components in the production of viral vectors. The agreed purchase price is approximately EUR 2.4 billion.
Polyplus, with approximately 270 employees, develops and manufactures transfection, as well as other DNA/RNA reagents and high-quality plasmid DNA - key components in the production of viral vectors used in cell and gene therapy and other advanced medical therapeutic products. Experiencing significant growth rates, Polyplus is expected to generate significant sales revenue and EBITDA margin in 2023. The proposed transaction is subject to customary conditions and is expected to close during the third quarter of 2023.
Founded in 2001, Polyplus is headquartered in Strasbourg and has locations in France, Belgium, the USA and China. The company is expanding its focus beyond transfection reagents through acquisitions in adjacent technologies, such as plasmid design and protein and plasmid production, expanding its upstream portfolio for gene therapies as well as genetically engineered cell therapies.
Polyplus' innovative solutions are highly complementary to our portfolio, particularly our offering of cell culture media and critical components for the development and production of advanced therapies, and there are also strong synergies with our portfolio of downstream solutions for the production of gene therapy.
In the dynamically growing market for cell and gene therapies, viral vectors are needed to deliver genes of interest into cells. The development course of such therapies is in strong growth and more and more of them are reaching important milestones. As a leading supplier of critical components for the production of cell and gene therapies, Sartorius and Polyplus will together be excellently positioned to play a significant role in this dynamic field.
René Fáber, member of the Executive Board and Head of Bioprocess Solutions at Sartorius