Merck buys life sciences firm Bio-techne in $11.3bn deal

Germany's Merck KGaA is poised to increase the size of its life sciences business, which provides tools for research, drug discovery, and manufacturing, with an $11.3 billion deal to acquire US rival Bio-techne.

Merck is paying $73 billion in cash for Bio-techne, a specialist in multi-omics, analytical technologies, and scientific workflow tools, whose shares promptly leapt nearly 20% to $70.50. The offer is a 25% premium to Bio-techne's closing share price of $58.88 yesterday (24th June).

Merck, whose shares also rose almost 5% on the news, said the takeover will expand its presence in "high-growth, next-generation life sciences markets," and add complementary technologies in research, bioprocessing and advanced therapeutics. It expects to make annual cost savings of around €140 million within three years of the deal completing.

Bio-techne recorded revenues of $1.22 billion last year, while Merck's life sciences division contributed €8.98 billion out of its total 2025 turnover of €21.1 billion, slightly ahead of its pharma division (€8.61 million) and electronics (€3.52 billion).

The deal is the largest for Merck since its $17 billion buyout of Sigma-Aldrich, another life sciences tools specialist, in 2015, and reinforces the importance of life sciences as an engine for its growth as its pharma division starts to emerge from a long period of headwinds due to patent expiries and some late-stage pipeline failures.

The company has also moved to shore up its healthcare unit through M&A, buying rare disease specialist SpringWorks Therapeutics last year for $3.9 billion.

"This transaction is an important milestone towards delivering on our mid- to long-term strategic agenda," said Merck's chairman and group chief executive, Kai Beckmann. It is also the first since he took over from former CEO Belén Garijo – now in charge of Sanofi – last September.

"Bio-Techne is an outstanding fit that directly supports our strategic direction focused on delivering cutting-edge products and solutions across the entire industry value chain – from lab customers to those manufacturing in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries," he added.

In particular, the merger will boost Merck's position in providing development and manufacturing technologies for cell and gene therapy (CGT) developers, automated protein detection and analysis, multi-omics, spatial biology, precision diagnostics, and advanced research tools, including cytokine, growth factor, antibody, and immunoassay kits.

Bio-techne's CEO, Kim Kelderman, said: "As part of Merck, we will have greater scale and expanded capabilities to accelerate innovation and deepen our impact."

The two companies expect the transaction to close by late 2026 or early 2027.