Sigma-Aldrich Corporation, a leading life science and technology company, has signed an exclusive global distribution agreement with Roche. The agreement pairs Roche's high-quality biochemical reagents product portfolio with the industry-leading eCommerce and supply chain capabilities of Sigma-Aldrich.

Under the agreement, Sigma-Aldrich will employ its sales, marketing and eCommerce expertise, and leverage the strength of its relationships with the scientific community, to present and distribute the Roche biochemical reagents product portfolio, which includes kits and enzymes for cellular analysis, proteomics and conventional PCR applications.

"Sigma-Aldrich is excited to offer the global scientific community access to Roche's leading portfolio of scientific tools and reagents. The addition of these life science tools supports our strategy to augment our portfolio with products that accelerate customer scientific research programs," said Eric Green, executive vice president and president, Sigma-Aldrich Research. "We look forward to working with Roche in this relationship."

"This agreement allows us to provide more customers with access to high-quality Roche biochemical reagent products through Sigma-Aldrich's expanded eCommerce and distribution networks," said Paul Brown, head of Roche Molecular Diagnostics. "In addition, this will provide us the flexibility to devote more resources to our primary focus areas."

Transition of the Roche portfolio to Sigma-Aldrich is expected to take place in 2015. In the interim, these products will continue to be available through existing Roche channels.