Saturday, May 12, 2012

GE Healthcare Life Sciences Completes Acquisition of Xcellerex, Inc.


CHALFONT ST GILES, England - Thursday, May 10th 2012 [ME NewsWire]

(BUSINESS WIRE)-- GE Healthcare, the healthcare business of GE (NYSE: GE) announced today that it has completed the acquisition of Xcellerex, Inc.,a supplier of innovative manufacturing technologies for the fast-growing biopharmaceutical industry.

The acquisition expands GE Healthcare’s offering of technologies and services for the manufacture of biopharmaceuticals such as recombinant proteins, antibodies and vaccines, a key area of growth for the company. The strong strategic fit between the two companies, combined with expanded capabilities in product development and marketing, will offer significant customer benefits through complementary product and service offerings.

Commenting on the close, Dr. Nigel Darby, Vice President of BioTechnologies, and Chief Technology Officer, GE Healthcare Life Sciences said, “Xcellerex’s expertise and reputation in technologies for biopharmaceutical manufacturing is a great fit with our business. GE and Xcellerex share a vision that an integrated approach, where we can help customers optimize every stage of their manufacturing process - from start to finish - has the potential to increase production flexibility and to deliver higher yields of finished product while reducing time to market. We believe that combining the skills of the two companies will bring great benefits for our customers in the industry.”

For more information about GE Healthcare Life Sciences’ technologies and services please visit www.gelifesciences.com

About GE Healthcare

GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our broad expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies, performance improvement and performance solutions services help our customers to deliver better care to more people around the world at a lower cost. In addition, we partner with healthcare leaders, striving to leverage the global policy change necessary to implement a successful shift to sustainable healthcare systems. Our “healthymagination” vision for the future invites the world to join us on our journey as we continuously develop innovations focused on reducing costs, increasing access and improving quality around the world. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employees are committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at www.gehealthcare.com.

About Xcellerex, Inc.

Xcellerex is commercializing turnkey biomanufacturing solutions that transform the speed and economics of producing therapeutic proteins, including biosimilars and vaccines. The company’s FlexFactory® is a complete modular and portable production train based on single-use technologies, advanced process automation, and compact clean room architecture.

FlexFactory allows deployment of GMP manufacturing capacity more rapidly and at greatly reduced costs compared with traditional facilities. Through its BridgeSourcing™ services, Xcellerex manufactures a partner’s biomolecules while the partner prepares for commissioning of its own new FlexFactory. When the partner’s facility is ready, Xcellerex deploys its TransPlant™ process to install, validate and train partner personnel in their own FlexFactory. This parallel-path model both accelerates time to clinical and commercial manufacturing and allows partners to manage the development and market risks associated with adding manufacturing capacity.

Xcellerex also leverages its proprietary single use technologies through the sale of XDR bioreactors, XDM Quad Mixers, and related single-use assemblies. To date, more than 20 therapeutic proteins and vaccines have been manufactured for clinical trials using Xcellerex technology. The company employs approximately 135 people and had revenues of approximately $50 million in 2011. For more information, please visit www.xcellerex.com

Contacts

GE Healthcare

Dr Val Jones

Global Media Relations Manager

T +44 7917 175 192

E val.jones@ge.com

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