Cytiva

History

2020: Renaming the company Cytiva

The acquisition of GE Healthcare Life Sciences by Danaher Corporation creates a giant in contract manufacturing and development. In April 2020, it was revealed that while GE Healthcare Life Sciences would retain 7,000 employees and international operations, the company would change the name to Cytiva, merging its well-known brands - AKTA, Amersham, HyClone, MabSelect or Whatman - with its new parent^[1]

2019: Danaher buys GE Life Sciences biopharmaceutical business for $21.4 billion

On February 25, 2019, General Electric announced the sale of the biopharmaceutical business (it accounts for two-thirds of GE Life Sciences, part of GE Healthcare) to Danaher for $21.4 billion. Danaher says the deal will be fully completed by the fourth quarter of 2019.

According to information published by Business Insider, Danaher management first approached GE with an offer to buy its BioPharma division back in April 2018. But then-GE chief John Flannery and his closest advisers rejected the proposal. The change of GE leadership in October and the arrival of former long-term CEO Danaher Larry Casp contributed to the resumption of negotiations on a possible deal, and already in January 2019, its details were previously agreed upon by both parties.

As a result, GE will receive about $20 billion in net revenue, which it intends to use to cover the debt, which amounted to $121 billion at the end of December 2018.

GE Healthcare sold the biopharmaceutical business for $21.4 billion. IPO now in doubt

Danaher says the deal will be fully completed by the fourth quarter of 2019.

The unit bought from GE will join Danaher as a standalone business. The biopharmaceutical structure is expected to generate about $3.2 billion in revenue for the new owner in 2019. GE Life Sciences offers solutions for conducting biological research and clinical therapy, including tools for research, drug discovery, diagnostics and bio-processing.

On news of the deal, GE and Danaher's stock jumped in value, though GE still can't fully regain its former corporate glory. In two years, by February 2019, the company lost two-thirds of its market value due to a number of operational and investment errors. Among the main problems are the mismanagement of orders and operations in the energy business, as well as long-term insurance liabilities. Earlier restructuring efforts have failed and the company is having to take more aggressive action to pay off its debt.

After the deal, GE also overestimated development plans in the area, and health care IPO GE Healthcare in 2019 is now in doubt. The company focused on completing a deal to sell the biopharmaceutical business, which represents 15% of the company's entire healthcare segment, and managing the remaining units.^[2]

2018: BioPharma unit sales - $3bn or 15% of GE Healthcare revenue

The BioPharma division in 2018 brought about three billion dollars to the company's total piggy bank (about 15% of total revenues in the GE Healthcare segment), of which more than $2.5 billion was accounted for by sales of various biotechnology products. According to many market analysts, it was BioPharma that was considered the most promising component of the GE biomedical segment, which has provided consistently high margins over the past few years.

BioPharma is engaged in the development, marketing and sale of innovative consumable biomaterials, in particular the special Fortem protective film, the production of chromatographic equipment, the creation of technologies and materials for growing cell cultures, various medical devices, etc.

2016

Plan to open 4 plants in Ireland

In September, General Electric said it planned to open four new drug plants in Ireland. The company announced that it will invest €150 million ($167 million) in a biopharmaceutical campus in County Cork, Ireland. GE customers will manage and own the new plants. The plants are expected to create 500 jobs. The company is expected to start building its Cork plants as early as next year.

GE believes the components they produce will be 25 to 50 percent cheaper than the traditional plants needed to create complex medicines. Also, the manufacture of such components takes only 18 months, and not 3 years, as usual.

The first plant of this type was built by JHL Biotech in China and has already begun to operate. The company is designed to produce inexpensive copies of biotechnological drugs.

The creation of new plants will allow GE to increase its presence in the medical technology market. GE technologies are already being used to create leading antibodies, the company also plans to become a major supplier in the new field of cell therapy.

Plans to keep the business going

On March 11, 2016, General Electric (GE) management announced plans to keep the Life Sciences division, despite the fact that the corporation focuses on heavy industry, Bloomberg reports.

At a meeting with investors, General Electric Healthcare CEO John Flannery said the concern is looking to increase investment in the fast-growing business, which is Life Sciences. In 2016, sales here will increase by at least 10%, the top manager said.

General Electric will not touch the medical business of 44 billion

The corporation is paying more and more attention to heavy equipment (gas turbines, jet engines, etc.), in connection with which in 2015 it sold financial assets worth more than $150 billion and reduced the division responsible for the production of consumer household appliances.

There were rumors that a similar fate could befall Life Sciences. Thus, RBC Capital Markets analyst Dean Dray (Deane Dray) in March 2016 suggested that GE could curtail the medical business, as other industrial companies such as Siemens did. However, John Flannery made it clear that the company would continue to actively support this direction.

This market has fundamental growth prospects, and we are in a very strong competitive position here. We are confident that the business can grow faster within GE than outside the corporation, "said the head of General Electric Healthcare.

He also noted that GE's plans to expand the health care market business proved difficult to achieve because of the inflated value of the companies GE could acquire, so the decision was made to focus on buying smaller firms.^[3]

2015: Revenue growth to $4 billion

In 2015, revenue from GE Healthcare's medical division, which is one of the largest in GE's holding, reached $17.6 billion, of which Life Sciences accounted for approximately $4 billion.

GE Life Sciences specializes in the development of equipment for cell therapy, medical imaging, chromatographic analysis, etc.

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