by: Shawn Lawrence
INNOVATOR
scientific creationism: the birth of a systems biology powerhouse Photo: Left to right are Vladimir Baranov, Olga Ornatsky, Gajus Worthington, Dmitry Bandura and Scott Tanner.
On February 13, 2014, Fluidigm Corp. completed its acquisition of Canadian biotechnology company DVS Sciences, Inc. in a cash and stock deal worth approximately $207.5 million.
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t was a deal that had the biology field buzzing, and for good reason. By acquiring DVS, a pioneering company in single-cell multi-dimensional proteomics, Fluidigm, the leading single-cell genomics company that created microfluidicbased chips and instrumentation for biological research, established itself as the premier source for single-cell biology tools. At the centre of this deal is DVS Science’s CyTOF™ Mass Cytometer, a technology that has been labeled a “game changer” within the industry. The CyTOF is unique in providing researchers with the ability to interrogate single cells for many surface and intracellular proteins at the same by combining the analytical capabilities of atomic mass spectrometry with the power of flow cytometry for cell analysis. “We’ve been looking for a company like DVS Sciences for a long time. It has a technology that we became enamoured with going back a number of years, and for me 16 BIOTECHNOLOGY FOCUS February/March 2014
personally, it had a breathtaking capability,” says Gajus Worthington, president, CEO and co-founder of Fluidigm Corp. Coupled with the products already in Fluidigm’s arsenal, Worthington expects big things to come for the company going forward. “What we’ve managed to do with this deal is create a real juggernaut in this new field of single-cell biology; specifically I think it’s safe to say we’re now the powerhouse in single-cell analysis. Combined with our existing technologies, we have for the first time the ability to offer a complete picture at the individual cell level. There’s no other combination of tools in the world like this, and I think we’re positioned well to drive another period of real revolution and growth within this market of single-cell analysis,” says Worthington. He explains this is crucial because more and more scientists see the understanding of individual cell behaviour as critical to their research. On the flip side of the deal, DVS Sciences has delivered a sound exit strategy for its investors while at the same time maintaining its presence in Canada but as a new entity; Fluidigm Canada. It’s everything that the founders -- Vladimir Baranov, Olga Ornatsky, Dmitry Bandura and Scott Tanner -- could hope for when they started the company almost a decade ago.
“This merger is really great for us. It’s good for our employees, good for the company and good for the investors who stuck by us. The normal exit for investors is three to five years, and so the timing for them was perfect. More importantly, it’s good for our technology and where we want to take it.” This last point is the most important to Tanner. “It was pretty clear we were doing well. We had a product on the market and a good reputation. We were cash flow positive and profitable. The next phase for us was obvious, to get even bigger and to work with someone who could help us expand our scope even further. This deal with Fluidigm does just that and put simply, we’re not giving anything up. We’re still engaged and we still have a dream and our dream happens to merge really well with the Fluidigm dream. Together, we will enable systems biology at the single-cell level: in terms of fulfillment from a scientist’s and a founder’s perspective, this is a great step. It gives us even more impetus, support and a wider market segment to address,” says Tanner. Both Worthington and Tanner agree that because they share many of the same customers and clientele, the deal was made all the more possible. In fact, this was a real critical point in Worthington reaching out to