GE Healthcare Life Sciences completes transition into Cytiva

01-Apr-2020 - Last updated on 01-Apr-2020 at 14:24 GMT

(Image: Getty/Bulat Silvia)

As Danaher’s $21bn acquisition completes, GE Life Sciences rebrands to ‘Cytiva’ and, with the COVID-19 pandemic, its CEO tells us demand is high.

In the one of the largest deals seen in the contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) sector, Danaher Corporation decided to spend $21.4bn (€19.5bn) to acquire GE Healthcare Life Sciences.

Now, with the deal complete, GE Healthcare Life Sciences has emerged at the other side rebranded as Cytiva.

The company will retain the same staff, which means that it will have 7,000 employees and possess operations in 40 countries, becoming part of Danaher Corporation Life Sciences platform.

CEO and president of Cytiva, Emmanuel Ligner, spoke to BioPharma-Reporter about his vision of ‘continuity’ for the business.

“We have a phenomenal heritage. We have great people and what they do really, really matters, in terms of providing the pharma and biotech industry with absolutely critical high-quality products and services,” Ligner outlined.

With the Danaher acquisition complete, Cytiva now has the backing of its Life Sciences platform behind it. Ligner stated that the tools within the parent company’s portfolio will help ‘accelerate its R&D’ and will provide the capacity for continued investment in its portfolio.

In particular, Ligner pointed out the potential for Danaher’s IDBS, a scientific informatics platform, to add further capabilities to its data management and segregation offerings to customers, as well as to accelerate its own digital strategy.

Rebranding amid COVID-19

When asked about aims for Cytiva, Ligner stressed that he wants Cytiva to partner more, and not just with companies within the industry but across the academic and scientific community as well.

Given the context which the biopharma industry is currently working within, Ligner emphasized that the industry's work cannot be done alone: “Nobody can do it alone. Nobody can fight cancer alone. Nobody can fight COVID-19 alone.”

With this in mind, Ligner continued to say that he was aware of 30 customers that had reached out for help in advancing potential vaccines – with further inquiries regarding rapid immuno-chromatography test development and monoclonal antibody development. This demand was something the company is used to but not at this scale, he added.

Prior to this, the impact of business from the erupting volcano on Iceland, that disrupted flights across Europe in 2010, and the Fukoshima nuclear disaster in 2011, which impacted Cytiva’s suppliers, were the closest events Ligner had experienced to the current situation.

However, rather than view these as negative events, Ligner reshaped the crises to be something that can be learned from: “You update your crisis management program and the way that you react. Each time you learn and, so far [on COVID-19], I think we are managing extremely well.”