Agilent to acquire BioVectra for nearly 1 billion

Agilent Technologies, a firm best known for selling scientific instruments, is making a splash in the drug services market. The California-based company has announced it will acquire the Canadian contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) BioVectra for 925 million. The investment will solidify Agilent's position in making oligonucleotides, synthetic strands of DNA or RNA used in gene editing and in therapies that work by silencing or promoting the degradation of target RNA. Agilent already manufactures oligonucleotides to make guide RNAs (gRNAs) for six pharmaceutical companies, including Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and Novartis. But these gRNAs are just one part of the complex machinery used in CRISPR/Cas-9–based gene editing, says Brian Carothers, a vice president at Agilent. "With the BioVectra acquisition, we aim to be a one-stop shop for our clients who need the technology for gene editing. " Oligonucleotide demand has increased over the past 5 years as more pharmaceutical companies develop RNA-based