Malvern Instruments has completed its acquisition of MicroCal, a Northampton, MA, US-based microcalorimeter specialist, from GE Healthcare Life Sciences for an undisclosed sum.
The UK company has also purchased the Archimedes particle characterisation system from Affinity Biosensors in Santa Barbara, CA. Both of these developments extend Malvern’s portfolio of analytical solutions for the biopharmaceutical industry.
The purchase agreement for the MicroCal business was announced on 4 June by Malvern’s parent company Spectris plc, and completion follows regulatory approval of the transaction.
MicroCal microcalorimeters are now part of the Malvern Instruments portfolio and are being sold and supported by Malvern Instruments with immediate effect.
The purchase of the Archimedes product follows two years of collaboration between the two companies. In 2012, Malvern entered into an exclusive distribution agreement with Affinity Biosensors to market and sell the Archimedes particle characterisation system in all regions outside North America, with a co-marketing agreement for North America itself. Malvern has now acquired the Archimedes product designs and IP and a licence to the underlying MIT patent for the technology for relevant fields of use. With this complete, Archimedes becomes a Malvern-owned product and continues to be supported by the Malvern teams worldwide.
'MicroCal microcalorimeters are an exciting and important new addition to Malvern’s portfolio that will significantly extend our ability to serve customers working in pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical discovery, development and formulation,' said Malvern’s Managing Director Paul Walker. 'I look forward to the rapid and productive integration of our businesses.'
Walker continued: 'Affinity Biosensors’ Archimedes system has brought the technique of resonant mass measurement into our range, and its close fit within our biopharmaceutical offering has encouraged us to secure its place and future development within Malvern.
'As part of our analytical toolkit for the biopharmaceutical industry, Archimedes sits alongside Zetasizer and NanoSight Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis systems, delivering a range of complementary solutions for quantifying early aggregation in bioformulations.'
