Danaher Corp. has completed its $21.4 billion acquisition of General Electric's Healthcare Life Sciences division on April 1, 2020. The new company, Cytiva, will bring in its foundation of scientific expertise, efficient team, and the solid customer base to Danaher's Life Science platform. DXY interviewed Emmanuel Linger, president of Cytiva when the deal just closed, and learned his ambition of leading the biopharma giant as it ushers in a new chapter.

Compared with the new companies and brands which need to try hard to build their reputations, Cytiva inherits its one-century-long legacy, earliest from the Whatman company, a British company founded in 1733. The company's research team has won two Noble Prizes in 1940-1950.

Emmanuel Ligner, President of Cytiva, says: 「Our foundation of scientific expertise, our team and our solid customer base place Cytiva in the right position to invest, develop and accelerate growth in the industry. Our passion for helping bring life-changing therapies to patients is unwavering, and we will continue to introduce innovative technologies to the market which improve productivity for our customers.」

Ligner explains that 「Cytiva」 comes from 「cyto」, which means 「cell」 in Greek, and 「iva」, a Latin suffix meaning 「doing」 and 「capable of」. The name signals the new company's roadmap to build a world in which access to life-changing therapies transforms human health through advancing and accelerating therapeutics.

Ligner is proud of the new company's value of providing high quality products and services. The new Cytiva is a 3.3 billion USD global life sciences leader with nearly 7000 associates operating in 40 countries, and focuses on accelerating growth, productivity, and innovation in a sector where global demand for personalized and advanced biological therapies is ever-increasing. 「My ambition is installing Cytiva's brand impression into our customers and stakeholders,」 said Ligner, 「we advance and accelerate therapeutics.」

Ligner's confidence comes from its well-proven heritage. Cytiva experts and technologies enabled breakthroughs in science and medicine that have shaped today's biotechnology industry. In 2019, more than 75 percent of the biological therapies approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration relied on Cytiva's technologies for manufacturing. Additionally, Cytiva technology has contributed in the nascent area of cell and gene therapies and has done so since the first successful pediatric trial of CAR-T therapy in 2012. This area continues to have great potential and currently, there are more than 1,000 regenerative medicine clinical trials underway globally.

「Commitment」 is the word Ligner mentioned times again in this conversation. Cytiva takes a portfolio of well-known leading life sciences brands such as ÄKTA, Amersham, Biacore, FlexFactory, HyClone, MabSelect, Sefia, Whatman, Xcellerex and Xuri from GE. The portfolio spans a full range of instruments, consumables, digital and enterprise solutions and services for research, process development and complete manufacturing workflows that scale according to customers' needs. And Ligner and his team's top priority is doing business as usual and deliver the same product and service to its customers.

Ligner believes it is significant to retain the customers' trust before and after the transition, though Cytiva will makes necessary adjustments to better fit the customers' demands after joining Danaher.「Cytiva is warmly welcomed by the whole Danaher Corporation. Danaher named two new board members with specialty in the Life Science industry, and it's a very important signal」 said Ligner, 「I believe Cytiva will benefit from Danaher's strength in innovation and evolution, which will further enable Cytiva in development and lean manufacturing. 」

The world is currently suffering the COVID-19 epidemic, which had a destructive impact on the world's society and economy. Cytiva's unwavering commitment to its customers has also been proven. It's critical to ensure the sustained production of vaccine and therapeutics. At present, there are more than 100000 pieces of equipment based on Cytiva's technology running around the world.

Cytiva is the major one-stop supplier of biopharma industry. It's the company's responsibility to ensure the sustainability of biotherapeutic production and supply. Though the protective masks and sterilization products are not the main business of the new company, Cytiva still timely adjusts and configures its supply chain to actively contribute to the fight with Covid-19.

Partnership is another word Ligner mentioned most frequently in this interview. As the world needs to partner together to fight Covid-19, Cytiva also actively seeking partnerships across the world to better fulfill its mission and vision. Cytiva drives customer-centered innovation, from idea to commercial development stages, with facilities across Asia, Europe and the Americas. It also has centers for customer collaboration and training to enable the development of new therapies, such as the Testa Center in Uppsala, Sweden and with the University of Technology at Sydney.

Additionally, Cytiva also continues to pursue collaborations for research, such as the center for advanced biological innovation and manufacturing in Boston with Harvard, MIT, teaching hospitals, and industry partners Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies, and Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. And now, it expects and welcomes more collaboration in China.

Ligner has strong confidence in China, which is an emerging market now, and will play a significant role in Cytiva’s business roadmap in the very near future. And to secure the success in China local market, Ligner and his leadership will continue to carry GE Healthcare Life Science’s existing strategy of 「In China, for China」.

Cytiva has partnered with Weihai Weigao medical device company to establish the base of biotechnological disposable materials to provide Chinese customers with more competitive products in price and supply. The partnership accelerates to meet the growing demand for biotechnological disposable materials in the Chinese market and continues to develop innovative product portfolio on this basis.

At the end of 2019, Cytiva and the government of Guangzhou Development Zone jointly invested $10 million dollars to build Guangzhou Institute of Biological Manufacturing Technology, which will provide training such as the latest biological macromolecular pharma production technology and technological process based on one-off technology platform, focus on the training of applied talents of biopharmaceutical in Guangdong Province, and help Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area biopharmaceutical enterprises to achieve international development.

Ligner firmly believes that Cytiva will reap fruitful results in the win-win process of helping Chinese partners grow and enter the international stage. Additionally, Ligner stresses that the establishment of the Cytiva brand makes the new company stand on the new starting point of this extraordinary journey. The market changes rapidly, and the road ahead still needs to be tested. Only by bringing more high-quality innovative products and services to customers can Cytiva win in the new field.