Affinity for acquisitions

WALTHAM, Mass.—Thermo Fisher announced last month its acquisition of Golden, Colo.-based Affinity BioReagents (ABR), a provider of antibodies, peptides, proteins and other reagents for life science research. The purchase price for ABR, which had revenue of $6 million in 2007, was not disclosed.

"We see this deal as important in two ways," says Chris Budde general manager with Thermo Fisher. "First, the primary antibodies from ABR were an important addition for us and second, it represents an opportunity for us to incorporate many of their products in our own internal product development."

Affinity BioReagents has a broad offering of more than 35,000 reagents—primarily monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies—which are used in medical and academic research, as well as drug discovery. The company also provides recombinant proteins and custom antibody-production services.

"Affinity BioReagents is an ideal complement to our existing capabilities in protein research," says Marijn E. Dekkers, president and CEO of Thermo Fisher Scientific in a statement announcing the deal. "This acquisition enhances our extensive antibody portfolio, which will drive growth as we combine these reagents with our current proteomics offerings to create end-to-end solutions for widely used protein-research applications."

Specifically, Budde says, the ABR products fit particularly well with the Piece line of products. "I'm responsible for the legacy Pierce products and combing them with ABR's line was one of the main drivers for this deal," he notes.

Pierce applications that may be strengthened through the addition of ABR to Thermo Fisher applications include Western blotting, ELISA, immunohistochemistry, flow cytometry and mass spectroscopy. DDN