NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) - Invitrogen said today it will buy primary cell provider CellzDirect for around $57 million in cash in an effort to expand its cellular analysis business.
CellzDirect’s human hepatocyte-based cell products and services are used in drug testing, particularly for predicting the effect of compounds on enzymatic metabolism in the liver.
Invitrogen CEO Greg Lucier said the acquisition of CellzDirect, which is headquartered in Research Triangle Park, NC, with an office in Austin, Texas, is in line with the company’s plans to invest in high-growth areas with an emphasis on specialty cell systems.
The addition of the CellzDirect products line “will greatly complement Invitrogen's market-leading portfolio of complete cell systems, including primary cells, media, matrices and growth factors," Lucier said in a statement today.
CelllzDirect, founded in 2001, has around 90 employees and expects calendar-year revenue for 2007 to be roughly $18 million.
Lucier made clear during Invitrogen’s third-quarter conference call in October that the company planned to invest more heavily in cell biology because it saw “extremely promising growth trends” in the field.
“We are putting the cell at the center of our strategy — [it is] the key link between our BioDiscovery and Cell Culture Systems segments,” Lucier said at the time.
“While we continue to innovate in molecular biology elements, we see more and more work being done by scientists to put biology in context. That context being the cell,” he said.