ILC Dover, a provider of single-use flexible solutions for pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical manufacturing, has acquired Solo Containment, a specialist manufacturer of flexible film isolators based in the UK. The acquisition will grow ILC Dover’s global pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical business, expanding its solutions for high containment and powder transfer to include aseptic flexible isolators, among others.
 
Solo has supported the life sciences market since 2011, providing customers across Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia, with advanced flexible film containment solutions. Solo’s flagship products include flexible film containment isolators, targeting niche HPAPI applications for pharmaceutical processing and include many custom-designed platforms. Solo has pioneered single-use aseptic processing isolators using uni-directional high-volume airflows, and today, all of Solo’s products are based on single-use platforms, a design principle that aligns directly with ILC Dover’s leadership in single-use flexible powder solutions for high containment. The combined capability set between ILC Dover and Solo will enable pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical manufacturers to further eliminate costly cleaning processes and achieve maximum productivity and safety without sacrificing reliability.
 
ILC Dover’s featured brands, which include DoverPac, EZ BioPac, and ArmorFlex, will now be supplemented with a range of HPAPI containment and aseptic isolator operating platforms and industry-leading brands from Solo, including soloASEPTIC, soloLAB, soloFLEX, soloVERSO, and soloADC. The acquisition also provides ILC Dover with a center of excellence in Europe, facilitating even greater support and responsiveness to customers in that region.
 
“ILC Dover is pleased to share this exciting news. Solo Containment is an innovative company that has pushed the boundaries of containment and is aligned with our commitment to customer-driven, single-use solutions, and the significant value they bring to the industry,” said Fran DiNuzzo, president and chief executive officer, ILC Dover. “We have experienced incredible success with single-use solutions for our pharma and biopharma customers, and we’re confident that Solo is the right partner to expand that success. We look forward to building on Solo’s track record and reputation of innovation and customer centricity.”
 
“Partnering with ILC Dover is an exciting step towards continued investment in innovation for Solo,” said Martyn Ryder, the founder of Solo who will remain with the company. “ILC Dover shares our vision of the future of flexible containment, and we look forward to delivering best-in-class performance and tremendous product value to our global customer base.”
 
This is the first acquisition ILC Dover has completed since announcing a partnership earlier this year with New York-based New Mountain Capital, an investment firm with over $28 billion in assets under management. Andre Moura, Managing Director at New Mountain and Chairman of the Board at ILC Dover, said of the acquisition, “New Mountain is pleased to welcome Solo Containment into ILC Dover. We believe the combination of the two companies will drive significant benefits to customers. Solo represents a strong step as ILC Dover executes on its growth strategy in partnership with New Mountain Capital.”