Danaher to Acquire GE’s Biopharma Business

GE has agreed to sell its BioPharma business to Danaher Corporation for $21.4 billion, adding biopharmaceutical research, development, and manufacturing instruments, equipment, and consumables to Danaher’s Life Science group, which includes Pall, Beckman Coulter Life Sciences, SCIEX, Leica Microsystems, Molecular Devices, Phenomenex, and IDT.

The GE BioPharma business will be established as a stand-alone operating company within Danaher’s $6.5-billion Life Sciences group, Danaher reported in a Feb. 25, 2019 press statement.

GE’s decision to sell the business is part of the company’s ongoing divesture of business units “to reduce leverage and strengthen its balance sheet,” GE reported in a Feb. 25, 2019 press statement also announcing the sale.

In 2018, the GE BioPharma business generated revenues of approximately $3 billion, the company reports. The business unit provides instruments, consumables, and software including process chromatography hardware and consumables, cell culture media, single-use technologies, development instrumentation and consumables, and service. 

“The BioPharma business has been a strong contributor to our success, and I am confident this agreement represents a great opportunity for our valued colleagues to flourish under the ownership of Danaher,” said GE Healthcare President and CEO Kieran Murphy in the press statement. “GE Healthcare has unsurpassed scale and scope, and we will continue to focus on our investments so that we deliver better outcomes and more capacity to a world striving for Precision Health.”

"GE Biopharma is renowned for providing best-in-class bioprocessing technologies and solutions. This acquisition will bring a talented and passionate team as well as a highly innovative, industry-leading product suite to our Life Sciences portfolio, providing an excellent complement to our current biologics workflow solutions," said Danaher's President and CEO, Thomas P. Joyce, Jr., in a Danaher statement announcing the agreement.

"We expect GE Biopharma to advance our growth and innovation strategy in an important and highly attractive life-science market. We see meaningful opportunities to harness the power of the Danaher Business System to further provide GE Biopharma's customers with end-to-end bioprocessing solutions that help enable breakthrough development and production capabilities. We look forward to welcoming this talented team to Danaher," Joyce said.

The GE Life Sciences Pharmaceutical Diagnostics Group, which supplies contrast media and molecular imaging consumables, will remain within the GE Healthcare portfolio.

The transaction, which includes $21 billion in cash and Danaher’s assumption of certain pension liabilities, is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2019, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.

Sources: Danaher Corporation and GE