February 2021—PerkinElmer and Horizon Discovery have reached an agreement in which PerkinElmer will acquire Horizon for about $383 million.
The purchase will expand PerkinElmer’s portfolio to include gene editing and gene modulation tools and enable the company to better partner with academic and pharma and biopharma scientists.
“One of the key fundamentals for molecular research and drug discovery is being able to knock down a gene or function and explore the results to discover actionable insights and new clinical trial candidates faster,” Prahlad Singh, president and CEO, PerkinElmer, said in a press release. “We’re excited to team up with Horizon to not only add CRISPR and RNAi capabilities into our existing portfolio, but also to leverage our combined life sciences screening and applied genomics solutions to help propel the next phase of cell and gene research for precision medicine.”
Horizon is headquartered in Cambridge, U.K., and has about 400 employees. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021.
In separate news, PerkinElmer announced that the FDA issued an emergency use authorization to allow sample pooling with the PerkinElmer New Coronavirus Nucleic Acid Detection Kit, a real-time RT-PCR in vitro diagnostic assay for COVID-19. The kit has a limit of detection of 20 copies/mL for the SARS-CoV-2 ORF1ab and N genes. Testing is limited to CLIA-certified laboratories.
PerkinElmer, 781-663-6900