Vancouver, Canada-based Precision NanoSystems (PNI) provides technology solutions enabling the development and manufacturing of lipid nanoparticles for the delivery of genetic medicines, including mRNA

Precision NanoSystems (PNI) has been acquired by Danaher Corporation’s Life Sciences platform. PNI is a global leader in technologies and solutions for the development of genetic medicines, including mRNA vaccines and therapeutics. PNI will join Danaher’s Life Sciences platform and will be complementary to other businesses in the platform, including Cytiva and Pall. 

“PNI has advanced a number of exciting innovations and we’re thrilled to welcome this talented team,” says Emmanuel Ligner, Danaher Group Executive. “As mRNA has matured as a successful technology in some COVID vaccines, we’re seeing huge potential for this technology to accelerate other therapies. The work done so far by the PNI team will also enable our customers at Cytiva and Pall to take a huge step forward in advancing their science to improve the lives of patients.”

James Taylor, co-founder and CEO of Precision NanoSystems, says: “Over the last 10 years PNI has been a leading technology company, enabling the development of genetic medicines. Joining Danaher’s Life Sciences platform allows our world-class team to accelerate and expand the work we are doing to support our customers with comprehensive technology platforms and the expertise to manufacture transformative medicines for the benefit of humanity. With the global reach of the Danaher Life Sciences platform and customers who are leaders in biotechnology, this is an incredible opportunity to bring PNI's innovations to market and expand our impact.”

The overall mRNA therapeutics and vaccines market is growing rapidly, and accelerated with the development of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines. It is anticipated that mRNA technology will be used to develop other vaccines and to treat other conditions of high unmet medical need, such as cancer and genetic diseases. 

At present, most mRNA therapies and other types of genetic medicines in clinical development are designed to be delivered with the help of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs). PNI’s Genetic Medicine Toolkit, including its proprietary GenVoy^TM LNP delivery platform and NanoAssemblr^TM microfluidic-based nanoparticle manufacturing platform, enables rapid development of genetic medicines. PNI’s validated technologies increase stability, efficacy, yield, and quality of non-viral genetic medicines, and lower the barrier to develop these important medicines.

PNI is developing a new center of manufacturing excellence in Vancouver, which will proceed as planned. When complete, the biomanufacturing center will further advance Canadian therapeutic and vaccine manufacturing capabilities, broaden the domestic life sciences sector, create new jobs in the region, and foster a new generation of scientific talent.

The acquisition of PNI and its 150 associates follows Cytiva’s recent acquisition of Vanrx.