Bio-Rad Buys Virtek Biotech Microarray, Robotic Business

HERCULES, Calif., July 2 -- Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc. has acquired the microarray and robotics technologies business of Virtek Biotech Canada Inc., a subsidiary of Virtek Vision International Inc. of Waterloo, Ontario. Bio-Rad paid approximately $7 million to acquire assets. Bio-Rad will hire employees from this group and expects operations to continue in Canada.

"We are very excited about this acquisition," said Norman Schwartz, Bio-Rad vice president and Life Science Group manager. "It is a natural extension of our DNA- and proteome-based product lines, augmenting our existing gene transfer, amplification and imaging products. We expect microarray technologies to become a standard method used in molecular biology laboratories, and this gives us an excellent entree into this fast growing market."