Medtech start-up Sirion Biotech sold to PerkinElmer

The US technology company is buying the shares from HTGF and KfW, among others. Sirion develops vectors for gene and cell therapy.

Exit at Sirion Biotech: The Martinsried-based company is sold to the US technology group PerkinElmer, which is known for its chemical and medical technology. Nothing was disclosed about the purchase price. For the deal, the previous investors are selling their shares. These include High-Tech Gründerfonds, KfW, Creathor Ventures from Bad Homburg and Bayern Kapital, which together invested in Sirion in 2007 in a seed financing round.

Sirion Biotech was founded in 2005 and develops novel therapeutic viral vectors for gene and cell therapy as well as vaccine development. The company has 50 people working for it in Germany, France and the US. "As part of PerkinElmer, we will benefit from facilitated access to genome analysis, gene editing and base editing technologies, as well as excellent global infrastructure and presence," said Christian Thirion, CEO of Sirion.

"Sirion is an excellent example of how founders and management teams can work together with experienced investors to develop an innovative technology from early stage in the lab to international technology leadership," said Karlheinz Schmelig, Partner at Creathor Ventures, assessing the collaboration. "Seventy percent of gene therapy trials today use viral vector approaches, and we expect this to continue in the future given the demand for targeted delivery of high payloads in the treatment of diseases such as cancer," said PerkinElmer CEO Prahlad Singh on the purchase of the Bavarian startups. "By combining Sirion's innovative delivery technology with our existing genetic material processing tools, we will be able to accelerate organizations' cell and gene therapy research."