Revvity kicks on as new era begins for Cambridge Research Park facility

The recently launched Revvity congolmeration that includes the Horizon Discovery brand of gene editing products has continued to embed its name in the life sciences community, announcing a new license agreement with AstraZeneca, and reporting revenue of $675m for the financial results for the first quarter ended April 2, 2023.

Revvity will focus on health sectors like pharma, biopharma and biotech. The company, which is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, employs more than 11,000 people, and generates roughly $3bn in annual revenue.

Revvity now has a singular purpose: “Expanding the boundaries of human potential through science.” The Revvity portfolio includes Cisbio, Nexcelom Bioscience, Omni International, Oxford Immunotec and Horizon Discovery.

The Horizon Discovery name will be retained for specific product lines, however Horizon Discovery’s financial data will not be separate from other companies in the Revvity portfolio.

Horizon Discovery started life in 2007 in Cambridge as a translational genomics company. Based on Cambridge Research Park, it built up an $80m pa turnover business providing cell engineering tools and services to its customers in three key areas of the therapeutic ecosystem: basic research, drug discovery and development and therapeutic applications. Its key lines were – and are – human disease models and reagents derived from genetically-engineered cells that customers use to gain knowledge of the genetic drivers of disease; develop novel drugs or cell therapies, and generate diagnostic insights.

Horizon Discovery was acquired by PerkinElmer Inc for $383m before being included in the Revvity portfolio from earlier this month. Revvity, which was previously affiliated with PerkinElmer, began its NYSE journey on May 16.

Asked about the new corporate structure, a spokesperson for Revvity told the Cambridge Independent: “Revvity and PerkinElmer are two different organizations. The PerkinElmer brand is a treasured one, and one that lives on with the AES business under New Mountain Capital. We’re starting fresh with Revvity and look forward to creating a legacy of our own.”

They added: “This is a multi-year journey reaching a culmination point, which allows us to create a company that’s in a category of one. There is no other health sciences business with a growth profile and profit margin like we have now.

“Whether it be within newborn screening, autoimmune disease or helping pharma and biotech customers with tools and capabilities, it puts us in a unique position to address some of the greater health challenges in the world. We hope our new name reflects what we intend to do.

“Horizon Discovery will now identify as Revvity, therefore there won’t be separate [financial] figures.”

The new licence agreement with AstraZeneca annunced last week was for the technology underlying its Pin-point base editing system, a next-generation modular gene editing platform with a strong safety profile.

Dr Alan Fletcher, senior VP, Life Sciences at Revvity, said: “Our fundamental goal for the Pin-point platform is to translate the technology from pre-clinical research into the clinic, and ultimately, impact patient lives. In that vein, we are delighted to announce this non-exclusive agreement with AstraZeneca to support their creation of cell therapies for the treatment of cancer and immune-mediated diseases.”