The deal – financial terms of which were not disclosed - will add Vitrology’s lab in Clydebank, Glasgow, its 38 strong workforce and sales agents in the US and Asia to SGS business and is the latest move in the firm’s effort to build in biologics testing as CEO Chris Kirk explained.
“Building upon our biologic therapeutics strategy, this acquisition complements the services provided by SGS. We are now among the top global players. It creates an ideal platform for further deployment in virology and molecular biology activities, to be leveraged within our global network.”
John Waddell, CEO of previous Vitrology owner private-equity group Archangel’s, was also positive about the firm’s prospects, telling Scottish newspaper The Herald that: “The management team at Vitrology are experts in their field and understand the market in which they operate inside out.”
Vitology – which was founded in 2007 – signed a testing services agreement with Beckman Coulter Genomics in January 2011, under which the firms have provided testing, identification and purification services for biologic drug products. At this stage it is not clear if this agreement will be impacted by the takeover.
Biologics building
SGS was been building its contract biologics testing business since 2010, when it announced its desire to be the world leader in this specialist area of the contract sector by 2014.
Much – but not all - of this effort has been via acquisitions, beginning later that year with the purchase of another UK-based contract analysis services organisation, M-Scan.
Beyond this SGS has twice added biologics testing capacity at its lab in Poitier, France, and opened a second testing site in India.