bioMérieux Finalizes Acquisition of BioFire

(Salt Lake City, UT, USA) a privately held US-based company specialized in molecular biology. With this acquisition, bioMérieux consolidates its position in infectious disease diagnostics and strengthens its presence in the United States.

The transaction includes a USD 450 million acquisition price and the company's net financial debt (around USD 35 million), representing a total of about USD 486 million. This acquisition will be essentially funded through bioMérieux's inaugural USD 408.5-million issue of seven-year bonds.

BioFire has developed, produced, and marketed a number of automated polymerase chain reaction (PCR) molecular biology systems. More recently, BioFire developed FilmArray, a CE-marked and US Food and Drug Administration (FDA; Silver Spring, MD, USA)-cleared multiplex PCR system that integrates all molecular diagnostics steps—sample preparation, amplification, detection, and analysis—into one system.

FilmArray, has introduced the syndromic approach—a new medical approach based on analyzing a syndrome i.e., a set of symptoms and, with a single reagent, identifying the disease-causing organisms responsible for this syndrome, whether they are viruses or bacteria—to infectious disease molecular diagnostics, creating a new standard in this market with its essential combination of speed, accuracy, ease-of-use, and comprehensiveness in one single assay. It allows hospitals to perform the molecular biology tests available on its menu in the hospital laboratory, thereby enabling faster and more efficient medical decision-making. FilmArray as of today has two CE-marked and FDA-cleared panels —the respiratory panel and the blood culture identification panel.

The two companies present strong strategic synergies, especially in marketing, manufacturing, and innovation. FilmArray is a key differentiating asset in the development of bioMérieux's franchise in infectious disease diagnostics, its primary area of expertise. FilmArray will benefit from the bioMérieux's worldwide commercial network. Additionally, bioMérieux will contribute its capabilities to the automation of reagent production, thereby optimizing manufacturing costs.

BioFire's site in Salt Lake City will become bioMérieux's hub for its expansion in molecular biology and R&D teams from the two companies will contribute to the development of new panels, creating very attractive prospects for the future.

bioMérieux and BioFire will start the integration process, focusing on leveraging the positive synergies between both companies, to drive FilmArray sales and menu expansion. In order to meet the expectations of BioFire's biodefense customers in the United States, a wholly owned subsidiary dedicated to the biodefense activities will be established. All the BioFire personnel, activities, and equipment associated with the defense business are physically transferred to a protected and separate site in Salt Lake City.

Jean-Luc Belingard, chairman and CEO of bioMérieux, commented: "The acquisition of BioFire creates strong growth opportunities. FilmArray meets perfectly the growing hospital laboratory demand for high medical value solutions in infectious disease diagnostics, thus ideally complementing our current product offering, especially for emergency situations and critical care."

Related Links:
bioMérieux
BioFire Diagnostics Inc.
US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)