GE Healthcare to buy Switzerland-based Biosafe Group

GE Healthcare today struck a deal to buy Biosafe Group SA, a supplier of integrated cell bioprocessing systems for the rapidly growing cell therapy and regenerative medicine industry, for an undisclosed sum.

The acquisition of Biosafe will expand GE Healthcare's end-to-end ecosystem of products, solutions and services for its cell therapy customers, and expands its technology reach to a number of new cell and therapy types.
 
Founded in 1997, privately-owned Biosafe designs, manufactures and markets automated cell processing systems.

Biosafe has a 20 year track-record in automated cell processing and is a recognised leader in the field with reliable applications in bioprocessing, regenerative medicine and stem cell banking.

Its proprietary products offer significant advantages over conventional processing tools, with closed fluid pathways, built-in traceability and single-use consumables.

Biosafe operates through regional subsidiaries in Geneva, Houston, Hong-Kong, Shanghai and São Paulo and is present in more than 50 countries.

GE Healthcare said that the acquisition expands its end-to-end ecosystem of products, solutions and services for its cell therapy customers, and expands its technology reach to a number of new cell and therapy types.

Kieran Murphy, CEO Life Sciences, GE Healthcare said: ''GE is building a world-class set of tools, technologies and services for cell and gene therapy and Biosafe's expertise and innovative systems will strongly enhance our customer offering.''

''Together with GE we will have the combination of biological, engineering and industrial capabilities to help accelerate the fields of cell therapy and cellular immunotherapy into the mainstream, benefitting patients globally, and bringing the vision of personalized medicine to reality,'' said, Claude Fell, founder and chairman of Biosafe.

GE Healthcare provides medical imaging, software & IT, patient monitoring and diagnostics, drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies and performance improvement solutions.