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Direvo Acquires AC Biotec
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Cologne, Germany, November
6, 2007 - DIREVO Biotech AG, a leading company for
superior bioengineered products and processes for
industrial and pharmaceutical applications, announced
today that it has acquired AC Biotec GmbH in an all cash
transaction. AC Biotec will continue to operate as an
independent, fully-owned subsidiary of Direvo Biotech
with Dr. Simon Curvers continuing as Managing Director.
This acquisition helps Direvo extend and expand its
capabilities and offerings to its current customers as
well to new customers in the industrial biotechnology
and pharmaceutical markets. AC Biotec GmbH, located in
Jülich, Germany, is a provider of bioprocess development
and contract manufacturing services to the industrial
biotechnology and pharmaceutical markets. Established in
2001, AC Biotec offers development, optimization and
application of fermentation and downstream processes
using microbial and plant cell-based systems. This
includes the complete scale of biotechnological
processes, starting from multi-well plates and shake
flasks up to pilot-scale stirred-tank-reactors. "The
acquisition of AC Biotec is a very important step in the
transformation of Direvo's Industrial Biotechnology
Business Unit into a more complete technology provider
and to become a one stop shop in the design and
development of superior bioengineered products and
processes", stated Dr. Thomas von Rüden, CEO of Direvo.
"This will also help Direvo to develop processes and
scale up its own line of proprietary products in the
future. On the pharmaceutical side of the business, AC
Biotec's capabilities will expand Direvo's ability to
supply customers with samples of its optimized products
at the preclinical stage. We welcome Simon Curvers and
his group to the Direvo Team. Direvo Biotech remains
committed to its further growth both organically as well
as by additional M&A activities." "We are very happy
with the acquisition by Direvo", says Dr. Simon Curvers,
CEO of AC Biotec. "As a member of the Direvo Biotech
Group, we hope to offer additional services and
capabilities to our existing and potential customers, as
well as to help Direvo Biotech and its customers with
our bioprocess development and scale-up skills. This
combination creates synergies that promise faster growth
and excellent long term perspectives to both companies",
he adds. |
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About Direvo Biotech
AG
DIREVO Biotech AG generates superior
bioengineered products and processes for industrial and
pharmaceutical markets by enhancing nature's potential.
The Company's portfolio includes optimized proteins,
optimized bioprocesses and other bio-molecules, in
research, in commercial development and on the market.
Direvo develops products both independently and with
global leaders such as Danisco/Genencor, Nestlé and an
undisclosed "top five" Pharma partner. Direvo Biotech is
committed to a tailored approach to addressing customer
needs and market opportunities. Direvo's industrial
biotechnology business focuses on food & feed, and
biorefinery markets. The Company provides solutions
through discovery, development and scale up of enzymes,
other molecules and strains. Industrial biotechnology at
Direvo emphasizes environmental sustainability and the
use of renewable resources. For example, a collaboration
with Danisco A/S yielded a significantly improved enzyme
that has reached the market as part of a
Danisco/Genencor product. Direvo's biopharmaceuticals
business focuses on therapeutic antibodies and
proteases. Applying its powerful and proven protein
engineering capabilities, Direvo generates improved
second generation therapeutics and discovers and
optimizes novel first-generation therapeutics. Direvo
offers early stage partnering from internal discovery
programs as well as collaborations on the optimization
of a wide range of therapeutic proteins. DIREVO Biotech
AG is privately held and located in Cologne, Germany.
Additional information is available at: (www.direvo.com) |
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About AC Biotec
GmbH
AC Biotec GmbH is a service provider in the
field of bioprocess development and contract
manufacturing. The company offers development,
optimization and application of cultivation and
downstream processes using microbial and plantal
systems. The core competence of AC Biotec includes the
application of small-scale culture systems and the
scaling of processes in between these systems and
technical-scale stirred tank reactors. The complete
scale of biotechnological processes starting from
multi-well plates and shake flasks up to pilot-scale
stirred-tank-reactors is covered. A close cooperation of
AC Biotec with producers of cultivation hardware and
innovative scientific institutions offers a unique
variety of platform technology and flexibility in the
application of these platforms not available for the
standard customer. The use of highly developed
technology in an integrated approach enables AC Biotec
to significantly reduce time-to-market for its
customer's products. Customers of AC Biotec are amongst
others Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH&Co KG,
Celanese AG, Codexis Inc., Evonic Industries (former
Degussa AG), Lonza Group Ltd., Qiagen GmbH. AC Biotec
GmbH is located in Jülich, Germany. |
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AC Biotec and Enzyscreen join
forces on miniaturised growth and screening systems for
microorganisms: |
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Leiden/Jülich: AC Biotec
GmbH and EnzyScreen bv announced a collaboration
agreement on the development and implementation of
miniaturised growth systems for the parallel cultivation
and screening of large collections of mutant and
construct libraries as well as heterogeneous microbial
culture collections. Within the collaboration Enzyscreen
will provide their expertise regarding the high-quality
growth of axenic microbial cultures, and a replication
system allowing the sampling of frozen glycerol stocks
without melting the remaining culture. AC Biotec will
provide its core competency in small scale cultivation
technology and in the new screening technology
(FeedBeads), enabling the user to run a
fed-batch-process in the microtiter plate. |
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EnzyScreen BV is a
spin-off company from the ETH Zurich, and is specialised
in the application of miniaturised growth systems for
microorganisms. It uses these systems for the fast
screening of its own collection of 1850 strains for new
biocatalysts (speciality: oxygenases and dehydrogenases
) on a contract basis, and also supplies ready-to-use
technology platforms to mainly the pharmaceutical and
fine-chemical industry. |
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AC Biotec GmbH is a
service provider in the field of bioprocess development,
contract manufacturing and technology consulting. The
core competence of AC Biotec includes the application of
small-scale culture systems and the scaling of
bioprocesses in between these systems and
technical-scale stirred tank reactors. Furthermore AC
Biotec has established a hardware line regarding small
scale cultivation technology. |
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Artes and AC Biotec join forces in
small scale cultivation and expression
technology |
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Düsseldorf/Jülich: Artes
Biotechnology GmbH and AC Biotec GmbH announce a
collaboration agreement in the area of small scale
cultivation and expression technologies using the
companies´ proprietary technologies and genuine
competencies. Within the collaboration AC Biotec will
provide its core competency in the miniaturization of
microbial cultivation. ARTES adds the long-term
experience in contract R&D in the field of
recombinant gene expression, specifically in the proven
yeast system Hansenula polymorpha. |
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Artes Biotechnology
GmbH, a profitable German biotech company, is
offering R&D services for recombinant strain
development in microbial expression systems. Artes`
customers include multinational players such as DSM
Nutritional Products (previously Roche), Danisco and
Fuji as well as small and middle sized companies. |
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AC Biotec GmbH is a
service provider in the field of bioprocess development,
contract manufacturing and technology consulting. The
core competence of AC Biotec includes the application of
small-scale culture systems and the scaling of
bioprocesses in between these systems and
technical-scale stirred tank reactors. |
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(www.artes-biotechnology.com)
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AC Biotec is official distributer
of the shaker technology from the company Kühner,
Switzerland (product list)
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02. - 04.10.07: CPHI 2007 in
Milan, Italy, hall 11 booth 12 |
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10. - 11.10.07: Biotechnica
2007 in Hannover, Germany, hall 9 booth G27 |
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AC Biotec GmbH is partner in a project supported by
Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt: |
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Primary screening of microorganisms under
fed-batch-conditions (www.icbio.de)
partners:
Lehrstuhl
für Bioverfahrenstechnik, RWTH Aachen, Germany (www.biovt.rwth-aachen.de)
Lehrstuhl
für Textilchemie und Makromolekulare Chemie, RWTH
Aachen, Germany (www.texmc.rwth-aachen.de)
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