Pall plans to buy California firm

Pall Corp., the Port Washington-based filtration company, Monday announced plans to acquire ForteBio, Inc., of Menlo Park, Calif., a provider of advanced analytical systems that accelerate the discovery and development of biotech drugs.

Terms of the deal, which is expected to close by February, were not disclosed.

ForteBio offers an array of protein analysis instruments that Pall said will extend its capabilities in the $1-billion biopharmaceuticals process monitoring market and protein research market. ForteBio's analytical solutions allow researchers to measure proteins in real time without the aid of fluorescent, radio or calorimetric labels or markers that can contaminate samples, Pall said. This enables significantly easier, faster and better characterization of drug candidates, which can help improve process development and speed time to market.

"The addition of ForteBio's platforms into our business reinforces Pall's commitment to helping customers get their life-changing products to market safely and on time," Pall chief executive and president Larry Kingsley said in a statement.

ForteBio will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Pall. In the short term, the impact to Pall's operating financial results will be immaterial, Pall said.

Pall is one of Long Island's largest companies, with 500 workers here and 10,000 overall. Its filtration technologies are used to separate impurities from water, beer, wine, oil, blood and other substances.