On March 25, 2019, Thermo Fisher Scientific acquired Brammer Bio for $1.7bn (€1.5bn) establishing itself further in the cell and gene therapy sector.
The acquisition of the contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) Brammer Bio, which specializes in viral vector manufacturing for gene and cell therapies, saw Thermo Fisher Scientific add the company to its pharma services business.
We spoke with a Thermo Fisher spokesperson in regards to this recent agreement and how it places the company in the cell and gene therapy arena.
“Thermo Fisher Scientific has a unique position serving the pharmaceutical and biotech industry and one of the areas that our customers are most excited about, and asking for the most assistance with, is enabling gene therapy,” the spokesperson told us.
Per the acquisition, Thermo Fisher will expand its CDMO capabilities and add to its “already strong position in the gene therapy market.” The company stated it supports the market with its cell culture media, single-use technologies for bioprocessing, analytical instrumentation and related consumables.
The spokesperson added, “Given our commercial scale and strong customer relationships, we also believe that we can meaningfully contribute to driving industry standardization in gene therapies to effectively support this rapidly growing market.”
According to Thermo Fisher, the gene therapy market is currently worth approximately $1bn, with an estimated growth rate of 25%. The company added that it believes that around 60-70% of the market is outsourced to CDMOs.
They added, “This is a very attractive market that's growing rapidly given the robust pipeline of new gene therapies in development – roughly 700, which has basically doubled over the past three years.”
“The ultimate goal is to accelerate the process to get these medicines to patients faster,” the spokesperson concluded.
