Feb. 23, 2023

This paid piece is sponsored by South Dakota Biotech.

Less than three years ago, Nanopareil was a South Dakota success story with what nanotechnology early believers thought had a strong potential to scale within the biopharma sector.

Now, two acquisitions later, it’s part of a global leader in drug development and manufacturing, bringing high-purity biopharmaceuticals and advanced therapeutics to the global market.

Nanopareil was launched in 2010 out of research at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology. It produced ultrahigh-capacity, single-use nanofiber membranes for the biopharmaceutical and biomedical industries.

Its patented nanotechnology and proprietary functional treatments provide outstanding purification capabilities for biopharmaceuticals, including monoclonal antibodies, vaccines, and cell and gene therapies.

“When we started the company, we knew that the technology was unique and provided a key enabling component that would allow for advanced vaccines and therapies to be manufactured more easily and more economically,” said Dr. Todd Menkhaus, the company’s founder and chief scientific and technology officer.

“Even though we were located in South Dakota, our vision was to become a leading global supplier of separation media for the biopharmaceutical industry and to be a piece of the solution that would allow access to affordable health care to patients all around the world.”

By 2019, the startup had started to mature.

The potential caught the eye of Gamma Biosciences shortly after that. The global life sciences platform was formed by KKR to address the advanced therapy market with best-in-class bioprocessing solutions. It added Nanopareil to its operating company, Astrea Bioseparations, in September 2020.

“Nanopareil’s highly innovative technology and deep expertise in the field of bioseparations supports our commitment to help our customers achieve new levels of process efficiency and performance,” Gamma’s CEO Matt Gunnison said at the time of acquisition.

Now, Swedish life sciences company Biotage AB has acquired Astrea Bioseparations, creating a chromatography leader with an attractive mix of products and services across multiple end markets globally.

“This move brings together two highly regarded and complementary businesses, creating a differentiated player in the field of chromatography,” Gunnison said.

“Astrea is quickly becoming one of the leaders in its field with an incredible pipeline of innovation targeting advanced therapeutics. We are excited to join forces with the team at Biotage and leverage the strong foundation that they’ve established to rapidly grow these businesses together.”

Astrea supports drug developers and manufacturers in bringing high-purity biopharmaceuticals and advanced therapeutics to the market globally.

“Since the acquisition of Nanopareil in 2020, Astrea has demonstrated their strength as an innovative and disciplined product development and go-to-market team comprised of some of the best in the business,” said Craig Arnold, former CEO of Nanopareil.

“Now, we are so excited to be a part of Biotage. Biotage has the in-house expertise to bring Nanopareil’s next-generation nanofiber technology to the next-generation biopharmaceutical market.”

The company supplies chromatography resins, adsorbents and columns as well as nanofiber-based purification technologies for biomanufacturing.

The combination “extends Biotage’s chromatography franchise into the higher-growth and larger bioprocessing segment, increasing its exposure to biologics and advanced therapeutic customers,” the companies said in a statement. “Astrea also strengthens Biotage’s financial profile through its highly accretive organic growth rate, attractive gross margins and significant exposure to recurring consumables-based revenues. In addition, the acquisition brings a rich, near-term pipeline of new product launches across chromatography resins, nanofiber-based membranes and columns.”

Nanopareil’s technology largely has been folded into Astrea, though the name still occasionally surfaces in presentations within the scientific and investor communities.

“We are proud to welcome the Astrea Bioseparations team to Biotage,” Biotage president and CEO Tomas Blomquist said. “The acquisition represents an excellent strategic fit for Biotage, and it will add to us a high-growth company with a talented global team with decades of experience. It also scales our biologics and advanced therapeutics business significantly, keeping us well positioned for the future.”

For South Dakota, the deal represents a strong endorsement for what’s possible in the state, said Joni Ekstrum, executive director of South Dakota Biotech.

“It’s so exciting to see the heights the company that not so long ago was Nanopareil has reached,” she said. “Many in South Dakota, from higher education, angel investors to private equity, played significant roles in helping this company move forward. We can’t wait to see the strides this South Dakota-developed nanotechnology is now able to make on a global stage.”

Nanopareil’s experience also served as a case study for starting and growing a new idea – so much so that it led to the creation of the Dakota Bioproducts Innovation Institute.

“The institute is designed to provide the resources necessary to assist startups quickly get past proof of concept and on to pilot-scale production.” said Arnold, who is now president of DBII.

“Nanopareil showed what can be achieved with a healthy, decentralized startup ecosystem like we have in South Dakota, and we’re excited to see which companies will follow its lead.”

To learn more about the Dakota Bioproducts Innovation Institute, click here.