In the past year, Merck KGaA has turned its attention to growing its business in supplies for the life sciences industry. The German company, which has teamed up with ChemLex on lab automation and bought JSR’s chromatography business, has now agreed to pay $11.3 billion for the US firm Bio-Techne, which sells a broad range of reagents and instruments used by academic researchers and industry.
“Bio-Techne is an outstanding fit that directly supports our strategic direction focused on delivering cutting-edge products and solutions across the entire industry value chain – from lab customers to those manufacturing in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries,” Merck CEO Kai Beckmann says in a statement accompanying the deal announcement.
Merck is unique in being both a major pharmaceutical company and a top supplier of ingredients and other supplies to the drug industry. Although pharmaceuticals can be more lucrative, executives stress that they see the company’s life sciences business as a key growth driver.
On a call with reporters, the CEO of Merck’s life sciences division, Jean-Charles Wirth, was clear about the strategy behind the deal. “Their portfolio is very attractive,” he said of Bio-Techne, because the company sells “not only consumables but also instruments and services. . . . Bio-Techne will bring scale, with 6,000 protein and 425,000 antibodies. And of course, it will help us to strengthen our capability in spatial biology and diagnostics, but also cell therapy.”
Merck formed its life sciences division in 2010 with the purchase of Millipore. In 2014, Merck bought Sigma-Aldrich for $17 billion, creating the business called MilliporeSigma in the US. The Bio-Techne deal is Merck’s largest life sciences acquisition since that purchase. Merck says it expects the deal to close by late 2026 or early 2027.
