Santa Clara, Calif.-based biopharma firm Agilent Technologies has agreed to purchase Charlottetown, PEI.’s Biovectra from HIG Capital for $1.27 billion CAD ($925 million USD).
Agilent said Biovectra delivered $113 million USD in revenue during 2023 and expects double-digit revenue growth in 2024.
The deal, which will see Agilent acquire all of Biovectra’s employees and sites in Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia, is expected to close by the end of the year. Biovectra and Agilent are known in the pharma space as contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs), providing pharmaceutical companies with drug-development and manufacturing services.
Founded in 1970, Biovectra says it specializes in clinical-to-commercial scale production capabilities for biologics, small molecules, bioreagents, and other types of drugs. This is the second time Biovectra has found itself under new ownership in recent years, as current owner HIG Capital purchased the firm for $250 million USD in 2019.
In 2022, Kitchener-Waterloo tech hub Communitech named Biovectra as one of 35 privately-held Canadian tech startups that are on the path to reach $1 billion in annual revenue as part of its annual True North list. Other companies on the list included Clearco, ApplyBoard, and Clio.
Agilent said Biovectra expands its portfolio of services in areas such as vaccine development, brings in expertise in “fast-growing segments” like popular weight-loss and diabetes drug GLP-1, and capabilities to support gene editing.
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“Biovectra’s manufacturing capabilities further expand Agilent’s end-to-end biopharma offerings into new growth vectors, including workflows that seamlessly integrate analytical instrumentation, consumables, and a wide range of lab services,” Agilent president and CEO Padraig McDonnell said in a statement.
Agilent said Biovectra delivered $113 million USD in revenue during 2023 and expects double-digit revenue growth in 2024. Biovectra will become part of the Agilent Diagnostics and Genomics Group when the transaction officially closes.
The Biovectra deal marks yet another Canadian biotech company changing hands for more than $1 billion this year. Last month, Hamilton-based biopharmaceutical company Fusion Pharmaceuticals was officially acquired by pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca for more than $2.75 billion CAD. Earlier this month, Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) entered an agreement to sell medical testing company LifeLabs to Quest Diagnostics for $1.35 billion CAD.
Feature image courtesy of National Cancer Institute via Unsplash.
