Minneapolis, MN 1/2/18—Bio-Techne, a provider of products for scientific investigation, has purchased Atlanta Biologicals and its Scientific Ventures affiliate for cash. Other financial details were not disclosed. Atlanta Biologicals sells cell culture sera, media and reagents. The company has around 25 employees. “Atlanta Biologicals is a great fit with the Bio-Techne product portfolio as we continue to expand our cell culture and tissue regeneration capabilities,” stated Bio-Techne President and CEO Charles R. Kummeth. “Many of our products are used in tissue culture applications, and the Atlanta Biologicals Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS) product line strengthens and complements our current tissue culture reagents offering and furthers our efforts to provide more complete solutions to our research customers,” he said. “With the increasing interest in 3D cell cultures and other cell-based clinical applications, we believe there is value in providing customers alternative and reliable sources of high-quality FBS and other tissue culture reagents.” The transaction is expected to be slightly accretive to Bio-Techne’s fiscal 2018 adjusted EPS.

With this acquisition, Bio-Techne continues to build out its portfolio of self-manufactured product lines, particularly for cell biology, as with its purchase of Trevigen (see IBO 9/15/17). Regarding the acquisition of Atlanta Biologicals, a Bio-Techne spokesperson told IBO, “Bio-Techne did not offer FBS prior to this acquisition; however, we did have products that have an optimized formulation that supports the growth of stem cells to specific cell lineages.”

Asked what differentiates Atlanta Biologicals from other FBS and cell culture product suppliers, he said, “Atlanta Biologicals has a reliable raw material supply of FBS that can scale as the business grows. Furthermore, the purpose-built facility made this a great opportunity to enter this market.” He noted that Bio-Techne plans to grow the business. “Atlanta Biologicals has experienced robust revenue growth of its business and in conjunction with the additional market channels and technological resources Bio-Techne can provide, these should further leverage the growth of the Atlanta Biologicals business.”