HAMPTON, N.H.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 25, 2000--Fisher Scientific Global Laboratory Products, a unit of Fisher Scientific International Inc. (NYSE:FSH), has signed an agreement with Bayer Corporation to acquire its facility in Middletown, Va., thereby significantly expanding Fisher's capacity to manufacture diagnostics.
The production of the facility will enhance Fisher HealthCare's line of self-manufactured diagnostics for clinical laboratories while also supplying biopharmaceutical customers. The 200 employees currently working at the Middletown site are joining Fisher Scientific.
As part of the transaction, Fisher Scientific will supply Bayer Diagnostics with diagnostic reagents for use in hematology, immunology, clinical chemistry and other areas of medical testing and diagnosis at hospitals and laboratories around the world.
"This agreement with Fisher marks another milestone in the successful integration between Chiron Diagnostics and Bayer Diagnostics," said Rolf Classon, president of Bayer Diagnostics. "With Fisher supplying these diagnostic reagents, we can focus our energies on establishing our facility in Walpole, Mass., as a center of excellence for manufacturing of immunodiagnostic and nucleic acid reagents."
Bayer Diagnostics, (www.bayerdiag.com), headquartered in Tarrytown, N.Y., is one of the largest diagnostic businesses in the world. With more than 7,500 employees worldwide and 1998 sales of close to $1.2 billion, the company serves customers in 100 countries with an offering that includes diagnostics systems in Critical Care Testing, Laboratory Testing, Point of Care Testing, Nucleic Acid Testing and Self-Testing. Bayer Diagnostics is a division of Bayer Corporation and a member of the worldwide Bayer Group, a $31 billion international life sciences, polymers and specialty chemicals group based in Leverkusen, Germany. With headquarters in Pittsburgh, Bayer Corporation is a research-based company with major businesses in health care, life sciences and chemicals.
Fisher Scientific (www.fishersci.com) is the world leader in serving science, providing products, services and e-commerce supply-chain solutions to research, healthcare, industrial, educational and government customers in 145 countries.
