Invitrogen planning to offload £275m BioReliance

Published on Sunday 11 February 2007 00:18

INVITROGEN, the US biotechnology giant, is understood to be drawing up plans to sell its BioReliance drug services division which it acquired for £275m three years ago.

Scottish Enterprise last week revealed that Invitrogen had cancelled a 17m expansion plan which would have seen all of its Scottish operations moved onto a site in Renfrewshire.

Industry sources claim Invitrogen killed the plan because it had failed to integrate BioReliance, which develops and tests drugs, with the rest of its business, which manufactures drug discovery products.

The Californian group, headed by chief executive Greg Lucier, is preparing to sell the BioReliance services business which it bought for 275m in January 2004, sources claim. The division employs 250 scientists in Stirling and Glasgow, while Invitrogen's products division employs a similar number at Inchinnan in Renfrewshire.

A spokesman for Invitrogen confirmed that the business was under review: "Invitrogen has made the decision to indefinitely postpone the transfer of the Stirling site to Inchinnan pending a more detailed review of the business. We remain committed to our business operations in Scotland."

He added: "We have completed a strategic review of the entire Invitrogen business portfolio, but no decisions have been made stemming from that review."

An industry source said: "Invitrogen bought BioReliance because services was the exciting new area to get into, and they thought that it would fit into their existing business. But products and services are not the same and the integration has not gone to plan. Now they want a way out."

Invitrogen boss Lucier may update investors on BioReliance's future on Tuesday when the company reports its full-year results for 2006. The group made a loss of $126m (64m) on sales of $311m (159m) in the three months to September 2006.

Invitrogen inherited its Glasgow operation, at the West of Scotland Science Park in Maryhill, after BioReliance had earlier acquired Q-One Biotech, a home-grown Scottish drug testing company. David Onions, Q-One's founder, was later promoted to become Invitrogen's chief medical officer.

The company revealed plans to consolidate its operations at Inchinnan last May at an event attended by enterprise minister Nicol Stephen and Scottish Enterprise chief executive Jack Perry. The plan was to safeguard around 500 jobs and create 500 more posts.

Invitrogen's change of heart was revealed in minutes from a Scottish Enterprise Renfrewshire board meeting which were intended for deletion but ended up being posted on the internet.