Fisher Scientific to acquire Dharmacon
Fisher Scientific International, the global provider of equipment, supplies, and services for the scientific research and clinical laboratory markets, is to add RNAi capabilities to its portfolio through the agreed takeover of US company Dharmacon, of Lafayette, Colorado.
Fisher Scientific International, the global provider of equipment, supplies, and services for the scientific research and clinical laboratory markets, is to add RNAi capabilities to its portfolio through the agreed takeover of US company Dharmacon, of Lafayette, Colorado.
The acquisition of Dharmacon provides unique and proprietary products and technologies that will complement those offered by Fisher's recently acquired Perbio brands: Pierce, Endogen and HyClone.
'The addition of Dharmacon's RNAi technology and products will give Fisher Scientific a leadership position in the important and rapidly growing new field of RNA interference, which is playing an increasingly important role in both basic biomedical research and drug discovery and development,' said Dr Stephen A. Scaringe, chairman, cso and founder of Dharmacon.
Dharmacon has established a market leading position in supplying and developing small interfering RNA (siRNA) for gene function analysis and drug discovery in pharmaceutical, biotechnology and academic laboratories. Dharmacon's proprietary SMARTselection and SMARTpool technologies enable the design of highly potent and specific siRNA reagents for gene silencing.
'By linking Fisher's wide range of complementary technologies with our RNA and RNAi capabilities, Fisher and Dharmacon will be uniquely positioned to lead the industry in supporting integration of RNAi approaches into ongoing r&d activities,' added Scaringe.