Purpose in a pandemic: Francis Van Parys, Asia-Pacific VP at Cytiva

THE biopharma supply chain is facing an unprecedented test, as countries around the world continue to battle the Covid-19 pandemic. This has stepped up the impetus for global life sciences player Cytiva, part of US-listed Danaher Corp, to invest in more infrastructure, expand its headcount and strike more partnerships, including in Asia-Pacific.

Cytiva - which has close to 8,000 employees across 40 countries - is a key provider of instruments, consumables, software and services that accelerate the development of therapeutics. Last year, it inked a deal with the US government to step up the manufacture of products to make Covid-19 vaccines.

The company was previously part of conglomerate General Electric, as GE Healthcare Life Sciences. In 2019, Danaher announced that it would acquire the business from GE for US$21.4 billion; the deal was completed in end-March 2020, with a rebranding to Cytiva.