Thermo Fisher Scientific is slated to buy electron microscope maker FEI Company for $4.2 billion, the firms announced last week (May 27). According to The New York Times, the aquisition is expected to close by early 2017.
“Fundamentally, this transaction bolsters our already strong position in the marketplace and allows us to play an increasing role in enabling our customers to accelerate breakthrough discoveries, increase productivity, and provide solutions to global challenges,” FEI’s Don Kania, president and chief executive officer, said in a statement.
“In life sciences, there is growing adoption of electron microscopy to study the structure of proteins,” Marc Casper, Thermo Fisher chief executive officer, said in a statement. “The technologies we gain with FEI will complement our mass spectrometry leadership, putting Thermo Fisher in the best position to capitalize on this important trend.”
Just two months ago, Casper’s company closed another large acquisition deal: Thermo Fisher bought Affymetrix for $1.3 billion.
By Tracy Vence
Source: The Scientist
CureVac and the University of Texas’s MD Anderson Cancer Center have announced a co-development and licensing agreement to develop novel messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA)-based cancer vaccines. The strategic collaboration will focus on the development of differentiated cancer vaccine candidates in selected haematological and solid tumour indications with high unmet medical needs.
FUJIFILM Corporation is planning to invest $1.2 billion to expand the planned FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies manufacturing facility in Holly Springs, North Carolina, US. This news follows the organisation’s announcement of a $2 billion investment in the facility in March 2021. This additional financial boost totals the investment to over $3.2 billion, FUJIFILM confirmed.
Sanofi’s global restructuring and downsizing is now fully underway, with layoffs stretching to the company’s Belgian offices. Belgian newspaper De Tijd reports that 67 employees have been laid off at a site in Ghent and 32 jobs are on the chopping block at Sanofi’s Belgium HQ in Diegem.