For the second quarter 2017, Repligen Corporation reported record sales of $32.5m (€27.4m) across its filtration, chromatography and proteins businesses but said the former was one of the main drivers of the 11% year-on-year growth.
The firm has diversified itself from being principally a supplier of Protein A ligands and media through a series of M&A activity, such as last December’s €39m acquisition of Novasep subsidiary TangenX Technology which added single-use tangential flow filtration (TFF) cassettes to its downstream offering.
“The TangenX TFF product line continues to perform well with some significant wins for late stage clinical processes, fuelling the growth in the second quarter,” CEO Tony Hunt told investors on a conference call yesterday.
“We are now two quarters into the acquisition, and while the majority of the sales opportunities continue to be US centric, we are encouraged by the opportunities emerging in other regions, especially at select CMOs.”
He added: “The XCell ATF product lines also had a strong quarter, driven by a combination of large system orders and increased adoption of our single use ATF portfolio.”
The Alternating Tangential Flow (ATF) tech was acquired from Refine Technologies in 2014.
Spectrum acquisition
And Hunt said there would be no slowdown in the filtration business as it looked to integrate new filtration technologies from the $350m merger with California’s Spectrum Pharmaceuticals which closed this week.
“It’s a pivotal deal for the Company that expands our markets, increases the size and geographical presence of our sales force and importantly, adds hollow fiber technical to our filtration businesses, which directly complements our market leading ATF product line,” he told stakeholders.
“The Spectrum deal hits on all cylinders of our long-term strategic plan to build a global leadership position in the bioprocessing industry. What makes it important is the combination of innovative technologies, expanded markets, a strong commercial organization and attractive financials.”
For the first half 2017, filtration contributed around 20% to 25% of revenue for Repligen, chromatography contributed 25% to 30% and proteins contributed 45% to 50% of revenue.