Invitrogen buys BDA’s Dynal for US$391 million

Invitrogen, a US-headquartered provider of essential life science technologies for disease research, drug discovery, and commercial bioproduction has purchased Beijing Development Area-based Dynal, a leading supplier of reagents used in medical research.

Dynal President Liu Xiangjun, Ph.D., and invitrogen Vice-President for the Asia Pacific region Jeff Greenberg valued the early April transaction at US$391 million.

Dynal is a wholly owned foreign enterprise particularly active in genetic research affecting Asian and Chinese people and supplies scientific tools needed in areas such as stem-cell research and bone-marrow transplantation.

Greenberg said Liu will remain with Dynal and that Dynal will retain its name, at least for the time being as brand positioning is considered. He said Liu may assume more responsibilities within invitrogen.

Dynal grew from 7 employees in 2002 to 55 at the time of the sale, which brings invitrogen's total employment in Beijing to nearly 100.

"As recently as a year ago, we wondered whether we were wise to rent more than the 1,000 square metres of space we were using. I decided we should get 3,000 square metres. I told my staff to 'wait and see.' Now, we're using the whole facility."

Greenberg said Dynal will serve as invitrogen's "hub" in Beijing, and he said more purchases of high-technology companies in the Beijing area can be expected.