IRISH DIAGNOSTICS company Biotrin has been sold to Italian firm Diasorin for €25 million. The purchase will see Diasorin acquiring the infectious disease diagnostics business of Biotrin.
This month the organ-damage biomarker business of Biotrin was spun out into a separate company, Argutus Medical Ltd.
Biotrin founder Dr Cormac Kilty will be the chief beneficiary of the sale. He owned 67 per cent of the company, which was set up in 1992. Senior managers held another 23 per cent, while Enterprise Ireland held the remaining 10 per cent.
The Irish management team will be remaining with the company, and Biotrin's current operations will stay in Dublin, where it has research, production and marketing operations. Diasorin intends to expand Biotrin's business by adapting tests to its automated laboratory test instruments.
Biotrin is the world leader in tests for Human Parvovirus B19, a virus that can cause miscarriage in pregnancy. It recently signed an exclusive worldwide licence agreement with the United States National Institutes of Health to develop tests to monitor the efficacy of new cervical cancer vaccines that have been licensed in Europe and the US.
The firm, which employs 70 people, last year reported consolidated revenues of €10.3 million, consolidated earnings before tax and interest of about €2.3 million, and consolidated net profit of about €1.7 million.
Diasorin had consolidated net revenues rise to €202.3 million and earnings before interest depreciation and amortisation of €60 million.
Dr Kilty and a number of his management team are understood to be investing up to €3 million in Argutus Medical, the company which was spun out from Biotrin. Enterprise Ireland will also invest in the company.
Dr Kilty will take on the role of chairman of Argutus, and the company plans to grow to 15 staff in the first year.
Argutus Medical will focus on expanding its portfolio of tests to monitor organ damage, and on entering new markets, particularly the near patient acute kidney injury market, valued at more than €600 million.
"Our biomarker business has an active customer base of researchers and scientists worldwide, with sales expected to top €1.5 million this year; we feel that with focused management and the right resources we can achieve much more and enter the much larger clinical markets," said Dr Kilty. "We are currently looking at our options for injecting new funds into the company, and are in negotiations with several interested parties."
