Waters Corporation buys Halo Labs to target hidden impurities in CAR T therapies

In a strategic move to deepen its footprint in the biologics and advanced therapeutics space, Waters Corporation announced on May 21, 2025, that it has acquired Halo Labs, a California-based startup specializing in subvisible particle detection and biopharmaceutical analytics. The deal marks another pivotal investment by Waters into analytical technologies designed for emerging modalities such as CAR T-cell therapies, gene therapies, and complex biologics.

The acquisition integrates Halo Labs’ proprietary Aura™ platform with Waters’ established Wyatt Technology portfolio, providing customers with an expanded range of capabilities for detecting and characterizing impurities in advanced therapeutics. While financial details of the transaction were not disclosed, the company indicated that the acquisition will have negligible impact on its income statement over the next 12 months.

Why Did Waters Corporation Acquire Halo Labs?

The acquisition is driven by a clear strategic alignment between Waters’ long-term growth in large molecule QA/QC and the technological advantage offered by Halo Labs’ imaging systems. Halo Labs brings to the table a low-sample-volume, high-throughput analytical platform that is specifically designed to identify and count subvisible particles in biological formulations—particles often missed by traditional light scattering or filtration techniques.

This capability is increasingly critical in today’s biopharmaceutical environment, where regulatory agencies and manufacturers demand higher precision and early detection of particulate contaminants in cell and gene therapy products. For instance, during CAR T-cell amplification, the process can introduce external particles that are translucent and difficult to detect. Halo Labs’ Aura system addresses this gap with full-spectrum particle analysis that enhances process understanding and patient safety.

By integrating this platform with Wyatt Technology’s existing light scattering detection solutions, Waters is positioned to offer a more comprehensive toolkit for biopharma customers engaged in the development of novel therapeutic modalities.

What Does Halo Labs Bring to Waters’ Biologics Strategy?

Halo Labs has gained traction as a disruptive player in the particle analysis space. The company’s technology leverages state-of-the-art optics and image processing algorithms to provide high-resolution, reproducible data across a range of formulation types. The firm’s tools are widely used by biopharma companies to assess formulation stability, aggregation, and product purity—parameters critical to the safety and efficacy of protein and gene-based therapies.

Founded with venture capital backing, Halo Labs has been operating at the intersection of optics, consumables, and high-throughput imaging. Its focus on subvisible particle analytics fills a crucial gap in Waters’ biologics platform, particularly as the company expands beyond chromatography and mass spectrometry into broader QA/QC and bioprocessing tools.

Waters Corporation’s President and CEO, Dr. Udit Batra, indirectly emphasized this synergy by stating that the integration would offer “earlier insights during therapy development and greater safety during manufacturing.” This aligns with Waters’ overall strategy to evolve from a leading chromatography solutions provider into a full-scale analytical instrumentation and software partner for the global life sciences industry.

How Does This Fit Into Waters’ Broader Growth Strategy?

The Halo Labs acquisition comes on the heels of Waters’ 2023 acquisition of Wyatt Technology, a leader in multi-angle light scattering instrumentation. With Wyatt and now Halo Labs in its portfolio, Waters is crafting a robust suite of tools tailored for biologics development—particularly in segments where particle characterization is increasingly mandated.

This move also aligns with broader biopharma industry trends, where regulators like the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA) are tightening standards around drug product quality, especially for injectable and cell-based therapies. With the rapid commercialization of CAR T-cell therapies and the pipeline expansion of gene-modified products, demand is growing for analytical systems that can keep up with complex manufacturing and characterization requirements.

Waters has consistently expanded through organic R&D and targeted acquisitions. Its latest financial reports show increased investment in R&D and biologics testing, supported by growing customer demand in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. As drugmakers shift toward niche therapies requiring higher-quality control, Waters’ differentiated capabilities in particle detection and molecular analysis are likely to see sustained demand.

What Are the Implications for the Biopharma Analytics Market?

The consolidation of Halo Labs into Waters signals intensifying competition in the biopharma analytics tools space. Rivals such as Thermo Fisher Scientific, Danaher Corporation (owner of Beckman Coulter and Cytiva), and Agilent Technologies have also invested heavily in biologics-centric instruments and platforms. However, Waters’ approach—combining high-precision imaging with particle analytics and light scattering—carves out a distinct positioning.

Industry experts note that analytical instrumentation is no longer just a supporting element in drug development. Instead, it is increasingly a strategic lever for differentiation, especially as therapies become more targeted and personalized. By improving analytical throughput and resolution for complex formulations, tools like Aura™ play a pivotal role in ensuring safety and compliance while accelerating time-to-market.

For Halo Labs, joining Waters offers the infrastructure and reach needed to scale its offerings globally. Halo CEO Rick Gordon remarked that the move would allow the company to expand its platform’s reach and continue its focus on quality and safety across the drug development pipeline.

What Can Investors and Customers Expect Next?

Although Waters indicated that the transaction will have limited immediate financial impact, the long-term strategic benefits are expected to be significant. The integration is likely to fuel cross-selling opportunities, especially among Wyatt Technology customers already working in biologics and emerging therapy segments.

Investors will be watching closely to see how Waters capitalizes on this acquisition to deepen customer engagement and grow share in a market estimated to be worth over $12 billion globally by 2027 for biologics testing solutions. Customers, especially those involved in advanced modalities, can expect more integrated, user-friendly platforms capable of analyzing diverse sample types with reduced sample volume and faster turnaround times.

As the biopharma sector continues its pivot toward precision therapies, the demand for cutting-edge analytical instrumentation like those offered by Halo Labs is only set to increase. Waters’ ability to deliver seamless, end-to-end solutions may prove critical in helping biopharma clients stay compliant, competitive, and innovative.

Waters Corporation’s acquisition of Halo Labs exemplifies how the analytical instrumentation industry is evolving in step with modern biologics manufacturing. By enhancing its ability to detect and analyze complex particles in therapeutic products, Waters is not only expanding its technology stack but also reinforcing its commitment to safeguarding patient outcomes and accelerating therapeutic innovation. The deal also underscores a growing realization in the life sciences sector: in an age of next-gen therapies, the smallest particles can have the biggest impact.