ARCHIMED acquires cell line development pioneer ExcellGene and sister company Magellan Biologics

Global private equity healthcare specialist ARCHIMED acquires a majority stake in family-owned ExcellGene and sister company Magellan Biologics & Consulting (both in the biologic therapeutics sector), partnering with founders and management, to create a group covering gene transfer, cell line development and cell culture-based manufacturing for high-performance production of recombinant proteins, and other advanced therapeutics.

Monthey, Switzerland-based ExcellGene, was created in 2001 as a self-funded company by Florian and Maria Wurm, and co-founders. Florian brought his expertise from developing upstream production processes for some of the first FDA approved recombinant proteins while working with Genentech in San Francisco in the 1980s. Maria provided her wide experience of bioreactor scale-up and expression systems from her prior work with complex cell culture-based manufacturing. The husband-and-wife team and other family members founded Magellan Biologics in Portugal in 2014 to develop innovative products for high-throughput cell culture processing, transfection products, and high-performance cell culture media, improving further the manufacturability of promising biologic therapeutics, and vaccines.

ExcellGene and Magellan operate at the core of ARCHIMED’s Life Sciences Tools & Biologic Services investment strategy, within the Bioprocessing priority sub-sector, identified with ARCHIMED’s MedSeg tool.

ExcellGene was identified as a category leader by ARCHIMED in 2017 and active dialogue continued until the context allowed the parties to partner. Since ARCHIMED made first contact with ExcellGene’s founders, revenues at ExcellGene have grown at a 20 percent compounded annual growth rate.

Using its MedValue playbook, ARCHIMED will work with Maria Wurm, who continues as group CEO, and the existing management team, to accelerate the group’s development, applying ExcellGene and Magellan’s technology towards supporting a growing number of biosimilars and complex, difficult-to-manufacture recombinant proteins.

 

 

Through this investment, ARCHIMED confirms its ability to deploy a broad sector diversification throughout healthcare industries. The transaction represents the eighth investment of ARCHIMED’s MED III fund following the purchase of Czech Republic-based Diagnostics leader BioVendor Group, announced in March.

To find out more about Exellgene and Magellan Biologics, visit the following websites: www.excellgene.com and www.magellanbiologics.com