Informex news - Sigma-Aldrich stays firmly on the acquisition trail

Sigma-Aldrich Corporation has announced its largest acquisition to date with a definitive agreement to acquire the JRH Biosciences division of CSL in a deal worth USD370m.

Based in Lenexa in Kansas, JRH is a leading global supplier of cell culture and sera products to the biopharmaceutical industry and had sales of USD150m last year. It has manufacturing facilities in the US, Europe and Australia and serum collection and processing centres in the US and Australia. Product lines include sera, cell culture media used in the production of therapeutic proteins, reagent growth factors and biological material containers.

The acquisition complements the existing cell culture business of the SAFC division, and makes the company a global leader in the biosciences sector. Whereas 10% of SAFC's cell culture business was in custom synthesis and 90% in research, JRH has 90% custom synthesis and 10% research.

The addition of JRH will 'provide Sigma-Aldrich with an assured supply of sera to better serve both our research and industrial customers,' said Frank Wicks, president of SAFC. 'We see many opportunities to achieve future growth, including increased utilization of our existing manufacturing facilities and better leverage of our r&d capabilities.'

In the course of 2004, Sigma-Aldrich acquired UK-based Ultrafine, as well as US company Tetrionics.