On Jan. 4, 2013, Sanford Health announced the acquisition of Sioux Falls-based biotech company Hematech, a subsidiary of Japanese pharmaceutical company Kyowa Hakko Kirin. The new company was rebranded Sanford Applied Biosciences.

Hematech, co-founded in 1998 by University of Massachusetts researcher Jim Robl, relocated to Sioux Falls. Dr. Robl was the first scientist to clone a cow, and develop procedures to introduce human antibodies into cattle.