BioMerieux has acquired PML Microbiologicals, a provider of culture media and microbiological products in North America for both clinical and industrial applications.
BioMerieux purchased 100 per cent of PML Microbiologicals's shares from the privately held Pelican Life Sciences Group, based in San Diego, California, for the sum of USD29.6m (?19.3m).
The privately held American in vitro diagnostics company has manufacturing and marketing teams based in Portland, Oregon and Toronto, Canada.
Founded in 1969, PML has 205 employees with 2007 sales of USD24m.
The company has an extensive range of products for use in the clinical and pharmaceutical industries, holding proprietary technologies for culture media.
PML specialises in reagents, including prepared culture media (PPM) for sterility testing and environmental monitoring, as well as control organisms, which are complementary to BioMerieux's offering.
The acquisition will enable BioMerieux to become a provider of microbiology testing solutions for pharmaceutical companies in the US.
In addition, BioMerieux will enter the North American clinical PPM market, becoming a PPM provider for clinical applications in Canada.
PML's sites in Portland and Toronto will join BioMerieux's worldwide network of culture media production centres with its main site in Craponne, France, and regional facilities in Illinois in the US, Madrid in Spain, Basingstoke in England, Brisbane in Australia and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.
