Repligen: New CFO 'suited to growth path,' hints at acquisitions
The role of Chief Financial Officer has been vacant since November 2012 but the Massachusetts-headquartered firm announced this week it had hired Jon Snedgres to strengthen its management team further, following the appointment of former Life Technologies executive Tony Hunt as COO in May.
“Mr. Snodgres' particular experience is well suited for the growth path that Repligen is on,” a company spokesperson told Biopharma-Reporter.com. “We are currently managing acquisition integration, global expansion of our commercial infrastructure, a buildout of our US manufacturing facility, while experiencing strong organic growth for our direct-to-market products.”
Consumable bioprocessing products
70% of Repligen’s 2013 revenue came from its consumable bioprocessing products, and 65% of that came from sales of Protein A - a surface protein that binds the constant region of most mammalian immunoglobulins and is the go-to capture technology in the manufacture of monoclonal antibodies – of which it has long term supply contracts with GE Healthcare and Merck Millipore who make and sell Protein A media by attaching the ligands to their proprietary beads.
Though demand for Protein A is expected to grow in the range of 8%-10% per year, reflecting the global growth in MAbs, increased revenues from chromatography products (such as its Opus columns), growth factors and the Alternating Tangential Flow system (ATF) cell retention system sold directly to end users will decrease the reliance on Protein A down.
Additional acquisitions
The ATF System was acquired as part of last month’s acquisition of Refine Technology, and though the firm told us it was focusing on “transitioning current manufacturing and QA from the existing Refine facility in Pine Brook, NJ” to its Waltham, MA site, it continues to seek and consider additional acquisition opportunities.
“We consider very selectively acquisition opportunities that can accelerate our long term goals,” rather than bolt-ons or mergers, which the firm did not deem critical due to the organic growth of its existing products and their further development potential.
“Ideal additions to our portfolio are bioprocessing products that are (or can be) ‘consumable’ and/or single-use, and that have the same call points for our sales force,” we were told. “We are attracted to products/businesses that have a technology leadership position, but also carry opportunities for improvement and increased profitability.”
As for Snodgres, he has held responsibility for numerous acquisitions and restructuring programmes in his previous roles as CFO at medical device manufacturer Maquet Cardiovascular, and prior to that at Thermo Fisher Scientific where he was VP of Finance for its Lab Products division.
The new CFO was given the thumbs up by Jefferies analyst Brandon Couillard who said in a note the appointment is “yet another hire that strengthens the overall management team and better positions Repligen to expand its global presence.”
He continued: “Mr. Snodgres's hands-on financial engineering experience in much larger organizations should serve to enhance RGEN's financial performance and prove valuable as it increasingly expands its international footprint.”
