Thermo-Life Receives Conditional EU Clearance
Life and Thermo are leading providers in all three markets, but Life has the larger market shares in all three. As a result of these divestments, Thermo can acquire three major Life product lines: the Gibco cell culture business, Dynabeads magnetic bead products, and the company’s gene silencing products, including siRNA and miRNA reagents. Thermo committed to a two-year transitional agreement to supply magnetic beads to the divested business. For the cell culture business, the EC expressed specific concerns about Life and Thermo’s access to sera from Australia and New Zealand, which is considered the safest supply. The EC also expressed concern about the companies’ positions as OEM suppliers of polymer-based magnetic beads.
Waltham, MA 11/26/13; Brussels, Belgium 11/26/13—The European Commission (EC) has cleared the merger of Thermo Fisher Scientific and Life Technologies (see IBO 4/15/13) with conditions. The EC found that the merger risked reduced competition in the European Economic Area with respect to the production and supply of media and sera for cell culture, gene silencing products and polymer-based magnetic beads. Consequently, Thermo has agreed to divest: the HyClone business’s media and sera products for cell culture, excluding single-use technologies; its gene modulation businesses, including the Dharmacon and Open Biosystems brands, as well as its license to the Tuschl patents; and its polymer-based magnetic bead business, including the Sera-Mag brand. Thermo stated that these businesses had combined 2012 revenues of $225 million. The EC worked with the US, Australian and other competition authorities on its decision. Thermo stated that it does not expect any additional divestitures will be required to win the US Federal Trade Commission’s approval of the merger. Thermo still anticipates the merger will close in early 2014.
