Brussels, 10/11/2006 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday, the Commission gave its blessing to plans by Thermo Electron Corporation to take control of Fisher Scientific International. Both of these are American companies present in the market for products and services for laboratory activities. The green light was obtained after Thermo agreed to sell off Genevac, a subsidiary of Fisher which is active in the production and sales of the centrifugal evaporators. "I am certain that the commitments proposed by Thermo on the centrifugal evaporators market will guarantee effective competition for a product which is very important for our research community", said Neelie Kroes in a press release. Both companies make and sell a wide range of analysis instruments, scientific equipment, consumables and services for the scientific community, particularly clinical, pharmaceutical, ecological and industrial laboratories, Fisher also distributing biological and laboratory products. Further to its investigations, the Commission concluded that the new entity will still be faced with effective competitors in the production of these products, with the exception of centrifugal evaporators, which are used for the treatment of laboratory samples. Once Fisher has sold off all stakes in the production of this equipment, "all of the competitive problems which may have resulted from the planned operation will be fully resolved", the Commission explains. At distribution level, it believes that "the entity born of the merger would not be in a position to restrict distributors' access to raw materials or to eliminate rival producers from the market". (ab)