Who Owns Pall Corporation?

Pall Corporation was founded in 1946 by David B. Pall, a chemist and inventor, in Glen Cove, New York. The company was originally incorporated as Micro Metallic Corporation. David Pall developed filtration technologies based on his research into membrane filtration and fluid purification. The company's early products focused on filtration solutions for industrial and military applications, including hydraulic fluid filtration for aircraft engines and fuel systems.

During the 1950s and 1960s, Pall expanded into new markets. The company developed filtration products for the aerospace industry, including filters for jet engine lubricants and hydraulic systems. Pall also entered the pharmaceutical sector, producing filters for sterile filtration of drug products. The company became known for its expertise in microfiltration, ultrafiltration, and other separation technologies that remove particles, microorganisms, and contaminants from liquids and gases.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Pall expanded significantly into life sciences. The growth of the biotechnology industry created demand for sterile filtration products used in manufacturing biological drugs, including monoclonal antibodies, vaccines, and recombinant proteins. Pall's filtration products became essential components of biopharmaceutical manufacturing processes, where sterile filtration is required to remove microorganisms from drug products before filling into vials or syringes.

Pall Corporation went public, trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker PLL. By fiscal year 2014, the last full year before the Danaher acquisition, Pall had revenues of approximately $2.8 billion and approximately 10,000 employees worldwide. The company operated through two segments: Life Sciences (serving biopharmaceutical, medical, and laboratory customers) and Industrial (serving aerospace, microelectronics, energy, and other industrial customers).

In May 2015, Danaher announced the acquisition. The $13.8 billion price represented a significant premium over Pall's pre-announcement market price. Danaher's rationale was to add Pall's filtration and separation platform to its life sciences portfolio, complementing existing diagnostics and environmental solutions businesses. The deal closed on August 31, 2015.

Following the acquisition, Danaher applied the Danaher Business System to Pall's operations, focusing on lean manufacturing, continuous improvement, and working capital efficiency. Under Danaher ownership, Pall continued to develop new filtration technologies for biopharmaceutical manufacturing, including single-use systems that reduce cleaning validation requirements and increase manufacturing flexibility.

In 2016, Danaher spun off a significant portion of its industrial businesses, including Pall's industrial filtration segment, into Fortive Corporation, a new publicly traded company. The remaining Pall life sciences filtration business was retained within Danaher. This restructuring focused Pall on the higher-growth, higher-margin life sciences filtration market.

The biopharmaceutical industry experienced a significant downturn in 2023 and 2024, driven by post-COVID-19 inventory destocking by biopharmaceutical manufacturers. Bioprocessing customers reduced orders for filtration consumables as they worked through excess inventory built up during the pandemic. This led to declining revenues across the bioprocessing sector, affecting Pall, Cytiva, Sartorius, and MilliporeSigma. Danaher's Biotechnology segment reported declining sales during this period.

By late 2024 and into 2025, the bioprocessing market began to recover. Danaher reported improving orders in its Biotechnology segment, though growth remained modest. The recovery was driven by new drug development pipelines, increased adoption of single-use technologies, and the resumption of normal ordering patterns by biopharmaceutical manufacturers. In Q4 2025, Danaher reported that Biotechnology segment core revenue growth turned positive, indicating the end of the destocking cycle.

In 2026, the bioprocessing market continued its recovery. Danaher's Biotechnology segment benefited from new product launches, including Pall's next-generation single-use filtration systems and expanded manufacturing capacity. The growth of advanced therapeutic modalities, including cell and gene therapies, created new demand for specialized filtration and separation technologies that Pall is positioned to supply.