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    1. Sector
    2. Contract Manufacturing

    With Henogen, Novasep Adds Upstream to Its Downstream Capabilities

    July 7, 2009
    Novasep has purchased contract manufacturer Henogen to add upstream capabilities to complement its downstream strengths.

    Novasep has announced 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, Novasep says, adds a complementary range of upstream processing capabilities and services to Novasep's comprehensive downstream processing (DSP) offer.

    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: Bioprocess development, both upstream and downstream processing;  contract biomanufacturing services, from the cell bank to the vial;  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," says 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).