Bio-Techne Corp. has acquired B-MoGen Biotechnologies Inc., a startup developed at the University of Minnesota that will add to Bio-Techne's portfolio of cell and gene therapy products.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed but Minneapolis-based Bio-Techne said it is financing the purchase from cash on hand.
Minneapolis-based B-MoGen Biotechnologies Inc. provides engineering tools, strategies and techniques for genome engineering work particularly in the areas of therapeutic genome engineering, genome engineering services, and mitochondrial genome engineering. Their tools and strategies help companies develop new medicines and therapies more efficiently.
"We are very pleased to include the B-MoGen technology in Bio-Techne's expanding portfolio of products that serve the rapidly growing cell and gene therapy markets," said Bio-Techne's president and chief executive, Charles Kummeth, in its news release. "B-MoGen's technologies solve the most complex gene editing problems with proprietary, cutting edge gene editing and delivery tools, enabling and accelerating growth in immunotherapy treatments."
B-MoGen was started in 2015 based on work of University of Minnesota Medical School researchers Branden Moriarity, Beau Webber, and David Largaespada. Today the company has approximately 20 employees.
Bio-Techne provided B-MoGen with a seed capital investment in May 2016.
"Given our shared goal to move our products into clinical and commercial applications, there is a great strategic fit between the two companies," Jeff Liter, president and CEO of B-MoGen said in the release.
For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2018, Bio-Techne had sales of $643 million, up 14% from the prior year, and earned $126.2 million, or $1.28 per share. It had $181 million in cash and short-term investments at that time.
