GE Healthcare Acquires Bioprocessing Start-Up Puridify

UK start-up is developing nanofiber technology to improve how medicine is manufactured

GE Healthcare has completed the acquisition of Puridify, a bioprocessing start-up that is developing a nanofiber-based platform purification technology for biopharmaceutical production. Puridify’s technology, FibroSelect, is complementary to the bead resins and chromatography membranes used recently in downstream bioprocessing, promising faster mass transfer, scalability and ease of use.

The company has collaborated with several major biopharmaceutical manufacturers in the development of their technology. The platform is expected to bring productivity improvements in the process development (PD) phase and small-scale manufacturing for a wide variety of biopharmaceutical applications. GE Healthcare will invest further to bring Puridify’s platform to commercialization fully integrating it within the broad range of bioprocess purification products already available at GE.

“The technology that Puridify has been developing gives GE access to exciting technology that could give considerable improvements for some customers in their purification step. The early feedback from collaborators has been positive. Today’s investment in this new technology is further evidence of GE’s strong commitment to innovation in the production of biopharmaceuticals to the benefit of our customers and of patients world-wide,” said Jan Makela, General Manager, BioProcess, GE Healthcare Life Sciences.

“Puridify has spent the last three years developing the industrial FibroSelect technology in close collaboration with leading biomanufacturers with promising results. We are excited to take this next step as part of GE Healthcare, with the full support and experience associated with one of the industry leaders in this field. Our goal is to introduce significant improvements to bioprocessing and being part of GE helps us to maximize this opportunity. This deal gives full recognition to Puridify’s development team and to the strong potential of the FibroSelect technology platform,” said Oliver Hardick, Chief Executive Officer, Puridify.

GE will acquire Puridify and all 17 employees will join GE Healthcare Life Sciences’ BioProcess business. The Puridify team will remain at their current location in Stevenage, UK, which will serve as a small research hub for BioProcess. Since it was founded in 2014 and after winning the first OneStart competition, Puridify has been privately funded by leading venture capital investors Touchstone Innovations and SR One, with additional support from University College London (UCL) Business.

About Puridify
Puridify Limited is a UK-based bioprocessing technologies development company formed in 2013 as a spin-out from University College London (UCL). Puridify’s platform purification technology, FibroSelect, aims to enable new processing strategies allowing the cost effective manufacture of a wide range of existing and new biomolecule products. The technology was developed during a collaborative research project between the Advanced Centre for Biochemical Engineering, UCL and the Science & Technology Facilities Council. The company works closely with bioprocessing research experts and leading industrial collaborators around the world, to drive the rapid development of its platform technologies. Puridify’s head office and research & development facilities are based at the Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst.

Puridify has secured a number of prestigious awards, the 2016 BioProcess International Award for ‘Best Collaboration’ with GlaxoSmithKline to advance industrial evaluation of Puridify’s FibroSelect and finalist for Best Downstream Technology Application - for Puridify’s FibroSelect nanofiber single-use purification technology; SR-One funded OneStart Competition and 6 Innovate UK Awards since 2013. For more information, visit www.puridify.com.

About GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services to meet the demand for increased access, enhanced quality and more affordable healthcare around the world. GE works on things that matter - great people and technologies taking on tough challenges. From medical imaging, software & IT, patient monitoring and diagnostics to drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies and performance improvement solutions, GE Healthcare helps medical professionals deliver great healthcare to their patients. For more information about GE Healthcare, For more information, visit www.gehealthcare.com.