Global biotechnology tools company Invitrogen Corporation, now a unit of Life Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: LIFE), is best known in Israel for its acquisition of Ethrog Ltd. Nir Nimrodi, formerly the CEO of Proneuron Biotechnologies Ltd., is CEO of Invitrogen Israel.
"Globes": Since its acquisition, Ethrog has been developing new products for Invitrogen, all of which are produced in Israel, mostly at the company's plant in Tel Hai. The company recently developed a new product for protein analysis, which is also produced at Tel Hai.
Nimrodi: "Ethrog currently has tens of millions of shekels in annual revenue, and it has had strong growth in recent years, which has attracted the attention of the parent company to Israel. The intention is to turn Intvitrogen Israel into a focus for the acquisition of new technologies. Last year, the company purchased a license from a new company for a product that I believe will generate sales within a year."
Nimrodi declined to state the name of the seller.
One of Intvitrogen's advantages is that it does not market products to patients or hospitals, but to research institutes. For this reason, the company does not have to meet regulatory requirements or deal with insurance coverage, but only with the buyer's quality control. The result is a fast time to market.
Nimrodi says, "There are a number of Israeli companies that produce diagnostic products and drug development platforms that can be easily converted into products suitable for acquisition by Intvitrogen."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 20, 2009
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