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GenCell CEO and founder Kieran Curran YouTube

GenCell is only 3 years old but it has succumbed to a (very) wealthy American suitor

The Irish genetics firm has been sold to a multi-billion dollar US medical-technology company for a secret sum.

A MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR US medical-technology firm has bought out Irish genetic-processing company GenCell for a secret sum only three years after the Limerick outfit set up shop.

Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD), which is worth about $24 billion (€18.9 billion) on its current share price, has announced it was buying the privately-held Irish company and its “next-generation sequencing” technology.

The catch-all term describes the latest genetic-processing techniques which allow labs to work with and analyse DNA much quicker and more cheaply than was previously possible.

GenCell, which was founded in 2011, developed its own robotic system for processing DNA using “liquid-cell technology”, which involved synthetic cells mimicking nature while the operation was being carried out.

CEO and founder Kieran Curran said the company had been able to develop the technology from concept to product over a short time and the buyout meant it would be able to look at further innovation.

GenCell raised €2.7 million in seed funding two years ago to help it get off the ground through a combination of private investors and the state-backed Enterprise Ireland.

gencellbio / YouTube

All quiet on the price

In a statement today, BD said it would not release financial details of the buyout until its next earnings update.

But the company’s president, Linda Tharby, said GenCell’s technology gave it access to “a fast-growing segment with the potential to have a significant impact on healthcare” as well as the scope to grow its genetics business.

The announcement comes just over a week after BD signed a $12.2 billion (€9.6 billion) deal to buy rival medical-technology firm CareFusion.

READ: Science Changes Lives: Medical trial is saving me from illness that took my two sisters >

READ: 85 new jobs coming to Dublin and Limerick >

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    Mute old fecker
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    Oct 13th 2014, 5:25 PM

    Nice one…

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    Mute John James
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    Oct 13th 2014, 5:53 PM

    Socialists and SF driving them out. More to follow.

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    Mute Mickey finn
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    Oct 13th 2014, 5:25 PM

    Me thinks maybe low tax rate helped

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    Mute Hipster Enda
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    Oct 13th 2014, 7:20 PM

    You obviously don’t understand the low tax rate.

    This company are buying the rights to this technology. They couldn’t give a rats ass where it is based.

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    Mute Richard Mccarthy
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    Oct 14th 2014, 12:28 AM

    This is just one tiny example why Ireland will never be able to develop enough of its own large industrial companies to compete on the world stage but will just continue to depend on sweetners like low corporation tax to attract FDI into the country, without a strong local base of native companies this alone will never be be enough to end emmigration.

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    Mute Dennis Laffey
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    Oct 14th 2014, 10:28 AM

    I agree Richard. We have to do more to realise long-term Irish successes in the technology sector. We have fantastic expertise here but we are selling out too quickly. Of course it’s hard to judge someone who cashes in an idea in the face of big big money.

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    Mute Joseph Blocks
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    Oct 14th 2014, 8:26 AM

    Almost accepted a job here a few months back. Wonder how it affects the employees… they’re all on 12 month rolling contract.

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