Grifols - Talecris Plasma Resources

Grifols, S.A. (Catalan:Â [É¡É¾iËˆfÉ"É«s]) is a Spanish multinational pharmaceutical and chemical company. Principally a producer of blood plasma-based products, a field in which it is the European leader and largest worldwide, the company also supplies devices, instruments and reagents for clinical testing laboratories.

Main products

Grifols is the major world supplier of IVIG, albumin, Factor VIII and other plasma-derived products.

Main operations

In 2007 the company had 3.6 million litres per year of blood fractionation capacity from three plants, one at Parets del VallÃ¨s near Barcelona in Spain (2.1 million litres per year), another in Los Angeles (1.5 million litres but being expanded to 2.2 million litres), and a site in Clayton,NC. In the United States the company owns 153 plasmapheresis centres, where it collects around 5.8 million litres of plasma per year.

Ownership

Grifols was listed on the Madrid Stock Exchange in May 2006. The stock became part of the IBEX 35 index in January 2008.

History

Grifols' origin lies in the laboratory founded in 1940 in Barcelona by Dr JosÃ© A. Grifols Roig, a hematologist and scientist. Dr Grifols was the first researcher to publish the plasmapheresis procedure in 1951. The company introduced its liquid IVIG product into the European market in the mid-1990s.

Probitas Pharma, S.A. was incorporated with high limited liability under Spanish law on 22 June 1987; on 27 June 2005 the company changed its name to Grifols, S.A. In 2003 the company acquired certain assets of the Los Angeles-based Alpha Therapeutic (US subsidiary of Mitsubishi Pharma) as the basis of its American expansion. On May 17, 2006, Grifols securities were listed on Spainâ€™s Mercado Continuo.

In 2009, CSL Limited attempted to takeover Talecris Biotherapeutics (the former plasma business of Bayer HealthCare LLC, Biological Products Division) for $3,1 billion but was stopped by the Federal Trade Commission. On June 1, 2011, a year after announcing the $4 billion deal, Grifols completed a takeover of Talecris Biotherapeutics, headquartered in Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, with over 2000 employees.

Grifols acquired the blood transfusion diagnostics unit from Novartis in 2013 as a "platform for global expansion". This unit is based in Emeryville, California and was a part of Chiron acquired by Novartis in 2006.

In 2015, the company acquired a 45% stake in Alkahest as part of planned co-development of "plasma-based products for the treatment of cognitive decline in aging and disorders of the CNS, including Alzheimer's."

In December 2016, Grifols acquired Hologics interest in their existing joint blood screening unit for $1.85 billion