Spanish biotech company establishes North American headquarters in Atlanta

ATLANTA, February 2010 — The Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD) announced today that the Barcelona, Spain-based biotechnology firm Sepmag Technologies selected Atlanta as its North American headquarters. The company develops, manufactures and markets proprietary biotechnology products. This project represents an initial investment of $150,000, which will create sales and specialized biotechnology engineering jobs as the company’s Atlanta staff grows.

Through proprietary magnet-based technologies, Sepmag Technologies develops precision equipment that serves the in vitro diagnostics (IVD) industry and the larger biotech community. The company was first introduced to the resources Georgia offers companies in this sector during the 2009 BIO International Convention in Atlanta.

“When our board decided to open the U.S. subsidiary, we first considered markets along the East Coast as primary locations,” said Sepmag CEO Lluis M. Martinez. “After meeting the GDEcD staff last April, we were encouraged by the strong Georgia nanotechnology and biotech cluster. Coupled with the Hartsfield-Jackson airport, the result was to choose Atlanta as our North American base.”

SEPMAG Technologies develops, manufactures and markets precision magnetophoresis solutions. These systems can speed up and scale up biotechnology processes of purification and separation, reducing the time and number of steps, leading to increased productivity with lower initial investment.