On Wednesday 18 December, the European Commission approved the proposed acquisition by Danaher of the biopharmaceutical business of General Electric's Healthcare Life Sciences division. The authorisation is subject to the divestment of a set of activities.
Danaher Corporation (Danaher) and GE Biopharma (the biopharmaceutical business of General Electric's Healthcare Life Sciences division) are active in products and services used in the bioprocessing industries (single-use technology products, cell culture media and sera, microcarriers and products for filtration and chromatography). These companies also compete in other areas of life sciences.
After its investigation, the Commission had serious concerns that the transaction, as notified, would reduce competition and lead to higher prices, less innovation and the risk of disruption of supply of certain products in certain markets (microcarriers, filtration, chromatography). To address the Commission's concerns, Danaher committed to divest five of its businesses, including the molecular characterisation business of MolDev FortéBio and the microcarrier and particle validation standards business of Pall Biotech SoloHill. The final sale of these businesses is subject to the approval of the buyer by the Commission. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)