Agilent Technologies has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held ProZyme, a provider of glycan analysis reagents, kits and standards. This acquisition will expand Agilent’s portfolio of biopharma consumables in the fast-growing glycan market.

“Agilent is focused on being a complete workflow solutions provider,” said Mark Doak, president of Agilent’s CrossLab Group. “We have a strong installed base of customers worldwide, and expanding our consumables portfolio is key to our strategy of providing a seamless customer experience and helping our customers reduce the cost and time required to bring new therapeutics to market.”

Founded in 1990, ProZyme is a developer and manufacturer of glycan reagents, kits and standards, which are required for efficient sample prep in the analysis of free glycans. Glycobiology, which is the study of the structure, function and biology of carbohydrates, also called glycans, is a fast-growing and important field of study in life sciences. Glycans play diverse roles in biotherapeutics, novel drug development, the study of bacterial physiology, and proteomics research.

“Glycan analysis is essential to the discovery, development, and quality control testing of the ever-growing pipeline of biotherapeutic drug products,” said Padraig McDonnell, vice president and general manager of Agilent’s chemistries and supplies division. “ProZyme is a market leader and innovator in the glycan consumable space. This acquisition provides greater scale to our biopharma consumables business and enhances our value proposition by enabling complete glycan liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry workflow solutions.”

“ProZyme and Agilent make a perfect strategic fit,” said Sergey Vlasenko, president and chief executive officer, ProZyme. “Our glycobiology and glycoanalysis expertise together with Agilent’s market-leading position in LC and LC/MS will allow us to provide our biopharma customers with complete solutions they need to accelerate their research.”

ProZyme is headquartered in Hayward, CA, and employs 47 people.