POMPEY, France, July 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Novasep, a leading producer of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and purification technologies for the life science industries, announces today the acquisition of Henogen, a contract manufacturing organization (CMO) offering bioprocess development and manufacturing services from the cell bank to the supply of clinical products. The move adds a complementary, market-leading range of upstream processing capabilities and services to Novasep's comprehensive downstream processing (DSP) offer. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

As a result of this acquisition, Novasep customers will have access to manufacturing solutions covering almost every type of biopharmaceutical. In particular, Henogen brings its experience with an extensive array of expression tools including E. coli, yeast, L. lactis, insect and mammalian cells as well as viral vectors. Novasep also becomes one of the few contract manufacturing organizations worldwide able to provide the complete manufacturing solution in the rapidly growing field of antibody-drug conjugates, covering early development to future commercial production.

    
    Novasep now offers a unique combination of solutions for 
    biopharmaceutical manufacturing. These include:
 
    - Bioprocess development - both upstream and downstream processing
 
    - An out-sourcing solution - contract biomanufacturing services, from the
      cell bank to the vial
 
    - An in-sourcing solution - chromatography and membrane filtration
      technologies and complete DSP, from lab to industrial scale

"Novasep is making another strategic step forward with the acquisition of Henogen," said Dr Roger-Marc Nicoud, president & CEO of Groupe Novasep SAS. "The two companies have an excellent range of complementary capabilities and we look forward to offering our customers an even wider range of manufacturing services. The move is further confirmation of Novasep's determination to become a major player in the world biomanufacturing market."

"Joining Novasep will provide a boost to the development of our business worldwide," said Dr Jean-François Pollet, CEO of Henogen SA. "We believe the combined offer of our two companies will be very attractive to our existing and future customers."

The two companies have already cooperated on several biomanufacturing projects and together have a strong portfolio of customers including big pharma, mid-size pharma and biotechs. Henogen has more than 100 employee and operates two biomanufacturing facilities south of Brussels. It will become a part of Novasep Process, Novasep's biomolecules division.

According to market researchers Arthur D Little, the contract biopharmaceutical development and manufacturing services is estimated at USD 1.8 billion. Biopharmaceutical companies are looking for ways to increase production and reduce cost, both of upstream processing (e.g. microbial fermentation, cell culture) and downstream processing (e.g. purification mainly using chromatography and membrane filtration techniques).

About Groupe Novasep SAS

Novasep develops, markets and operates innovative technologies providing life science industries with safe and cost-effective production of active molecules.

The global manufacturing solutions offered by Novasep include process development services; purification equipment and systems; contract manufacturing services; and complex active molecules. They apply to:

- Synthetic molecules, combining conventional chemistry with special technologies and know-how such as hazardous chemistry, asymmetric synthesis, HPAI handling, low temperature chemistry, biocatalysis, process chromatography, etc.

- Biomolecules, with single unit operations or complete upstream and downstream processes including fermentation and cell culture, innovative batch and continuous purification technologies such as membrane processes, ion exchange, chromatography, crystallization and formulation.

As user of its own technologies, Novasep understands its customers' challenges and shares its experience and know-how to provide the best solution with guaranteed performance.

The applications of Novasep's offering cover the pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, food, functional ingredients and bio-industries markets.

Customers include pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer, Sanofi Aventis, Roche, Wyeth, Eli Lilly, Bristol Myers Squibb, GSK Biologicals, Gilead, UCB Pharma.

The company has six FDA inspected manufacturing plants in France, Germany and the Bahamas, two biopharmaceutical production sites in Belgium, R&D and equipment manufacturing facilities in the USA, China and France, and an office in Japan. It employs approximately 1,300 people and had annual revenues of EUR324 million in 2008. More than 2,000 systems designed and produced by Novasep are currently purifying active molecules throughout the world. The company holds more than 300 different patents covering its technologies and processes.

About Henogen SA

Henogen SA is a Contract Manufacturing Organization (CMO) focused on the development of new biopharmaceuticals. Henogen has extensive knowledge in performing and/or accompanying partners through the R&D, process development and cGMP production of clinical grade materials currently up to phase III trials.

With over 100 employees on two sites located south of Brussels (Belgium), Henogen operates two 2 cGMP BSL2/BSL3 multipurpose biomanufacturing facilities, including separate upstream, downstream processing and fill & finish suites. Henogen is experienced with almost any kind of expression tool (E. coli, yeast, L. lactis, insect and mammalian cells as well as viral vectors), and masters batch and perfusion cell culture.

Henogen's development and cGMP manufacturing track record includes recombinant proteins, subunit and live attenuated vaccines, monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), viral vectors, etc.

http://www.novasep.com