Fisher Scientific International Inc., the US based $ 5.6 billion manufacturer of lab equipments for drug research, has acquired the Mumbai based Ultrapure Scientifics Pvt. Ltd, set to mark its entry into India. Fisher is planning to invest about Rs.100 crore in the Cadila promoted Special Economic Zone to set up a 100 per cent export oriented manufacturing facility for its clinical products.

The acquisition of Ultrapure Scientifics is valued around a million US dollars. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to acquire the businesses of the Rs.10 crore odd Ultrapure, including its distribution business, was signed on 10th April. Following this, Fisher has formed a 100 per cent Indian subsidiary Scientific Products (India) Private Limited (SPIPL). Ultrapure Scientifics Pvt. Ltd. was a leading lab and process equipment catalogue company in India and a long-time distributor of Cole-Parmer Instruments in India.

Disclosing the news to Pharmabiz, Rajeev Nair, director, SPIPL said the company has opened a new office in Mumbai in early May, this year. The company has retained the professionals of Ultrapure and is increasing the headcount in India, to about 50 professionals from the existing 20.

He said Fisher is also investing about Rs.100 crore at Cadila promoted Special Economic Zone to set up a 100 percent export oriented manufacturing facility for its clinical products. The facility will also supply a few products for the Indian market. Fisher's clinical products line includes consumable supplies for clinical applications, including drugs-of-abuse testing, specimen collection, veterinary and dairy testing and general packaging and storage. The leak-proof plastic vials and containers are used in clinical and reference labs, critical-care hospital labs, industrial and pharmaceutical research, veterinary and dairy industries.

He said the SPIPL offering to the Indian customers would include more than 100,000 products including Masterflex, the industry's premier peristaltic pump brand. The Cole-Parmer offering, Masterflex and other key brands like Ika and tubing products from St. Gobain will continue to be a major focus of the new entity through its Cole-Parmer division.

It will also provide lab equipments, research and clinical consumable products under familiar brands as Eutech, Barnstead, Genevac, Matrix, Nunc and Nalgene. These brands are leaders in their respective fields of electrochemistry, water purification, centrifugal technology, liquid handling, life science and laboratory consumable supplies. The innovative products include the world's first colour touch screen, research-grade CyberScan Series 6000 bench meter from Eutech and the revolutionary Nunc Cell Factory that facilitates increased cell production.

Sources said founded in 1902, Fisher Scientific is a Fortune 500 company with approximately 19,500 employees worldwide. It had revenues of $5.6 billion in 2005. It serves pharmaceutical and biotech companies; colleges and universities; medical-research institutions; hospitals; reference, quality-control, process-control and R&D labs in various industries; as well as government agencies. From bio-chemicals, cell-culture media and proprietary RNAi technology to rapid-diagnostic tests, safety products and other consumable supplies, Fisher provides more than 600,000 products and services.

It may be noted that Thermo Electron Corp., the world's biggest medical-laboratory instrument maker, has recently offered to acquire Fisher Scientific International Inc. for a reported $10.6 billion to become the largest supplier of lab equipment from beakers to sterilizers. Thermo is trying to acquire a company twice its size to branch out into the emerging market for genetic tests and personalized health care and fill growing demand for medical instruments. Thermo had $2.63 billion in sales last year, compared with Fisher's $5.58 billion.

Thermo already has an Indian subsidiary and both the companies feel that demand for medical instruments is rising in Asia and India, where development by generic-drug makers is rising. When pointed out that Thermo already has set up an Indian subsidiary and the impending merger in near future, Rajeev Nair said the completion of merger process would take about two to three years and until then both the companies would maintain their identity in India, as per the information.