Minnesota-headquartered Techne is a developer, manufacturer and distributor of products sold to biomedical researchers and clinical research laboratories.

President and CEO of Techne, Tom Oland, says that Tocris has a business model which mirrors that of Techne subsidiary company, R&D Systems, with comparable financial metrics.

Tocris is to be implemented into R&D Systems, which is comprised of two companies: Research and Diagnostic Systems located in Minnesota and R&D Systems Europe in Oxfordshire, UK.

R&D Systems operates two divisions, Hematology and Biotechnology. The Hematology division manufactures controls which are used in hospitals and clinical laboratories to check the accuracy of blood analysis instruments. The Biotechnology division develops and manufactures biotechnology products such as purified proteins and antibodies that are sold to the research market.

Oland adds: ‘The acquisition will enhance and supplement the depth and breadth of R&D Systems’ product offering and will augment our ability to serve research scientists, as well as leverage our marketing, sales and distribution capabilities with this important product class.’

Tocris, which supplies reagents for non-clinical life science research to understand biological processes and diseases, will coordinate with R&D Systems and its related European and Chinese entities to expand product distribution. The management team and employees will remain with the business.

Laurence Ede, CEO of Tocris, comments: ‘Both Tocris and R&D Systems have many customers in common and yet our product ranges are entirely complementary.

‘Consequently the combined business will represent far more of a one-stop-shop for life scientists and be ideally placed to compete in the global market.’