Merck KGaA Agrees $11.3bn Bio-Techne Acquisition

Merck KGaA has agreed to acquire Minneapolis-based Bio-Techne for an enterprise value of $11.3 billion, marking the German science and technology group’s largest acquisition in more than a decade. Confirmed on 25 June 2026, the deal brings together Merck KGaA’s global infrastructure and Bio-Techne’s portfolio of life science tools, analytical technologies and consumables, with strategic emphasis on multi-omics, spatial biology, cell and gene therapy, and precision diagnostics.

The acquisition strengthens Merck KGaA’s Life Science division across some of the highest-value growth areas in research tools, including multi-omics workflows, spatial biology technologies that map gene and protein expression in tissue context, and advanced research consumables used across cell and gene therapy development. Bio-Techne brings established positions across life science tools, analytical technologies and consumables. Merck KGaA gains a stronger US manufacturing and commercial footprint, while Bio-Techne secures the global reach and manufacturing scale of a parent group with sales presence in 65 countries.

Merck KGaA, the world’s oldest operating chemical and pharmaceutical company, generated €21.1 billion in sales in 2025 across its life science, healthcare and electronics businesses. The Bio-Techne move follows a pattern of substantial deal-making at Merck KGaA, including the SpringWorks Therapeutics acquisition completed in 2025. The acquisition will be subject to regulatory clearances, and the combined entity is expected to compete directly with Thermo Fisher Scientific, Danaher and Sartorius across overlapping life science tools and reagent categories.

The deal repositions Merck KGaA as a more credible scale competitor to Thermo Fisher and Danaher in life sciences tools, particularly in the higher-growth multi-omics and spatial biology categories where Bio-Techne has built defensible IP. Expect regulatory scrutiny across antitrust authorities, but also a longer-term reshaping of the competitive landscape across research consumables and advanced biology workflows.

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