Brussels, 08/07/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 7 July, the European Commission approved the acquisition of sole control of Millipore, a US-based life science group of companies, by the German pharmaceutical and chemical company Merck, though a purchase of shares. Millipore develops, produces and sells laboratory water solutions, reagents, kits, antibodies, tools for purifying, preparing or screening biological samples and complementary accessories. Although Merck and Millipore are both active in the life science fields, the markets in which they operate are different. Millipore supplies inputs for the research, development and production of biological drugs created through biological processes, whereas Merck's inputs mainly serve in the research, development and production of products created through chemical processes. Therefore, the transaction is largely complementary and the parties' activities only modestly overlap, with respect to the markets for Luminex immunoassays and air monitoring systems. However, the parties' combined market shares remain relatively low with only modest increments resulting from the transaction. Given the presence of strong alternative competitors, the Commission concluded that the proposed transaction notified to it on 2 June last, does not raise competition concerns. (F.G./transl.fl)