Deal fortifies Thermo’s portfolio of automated equipment for microbiology labs.

Thermo Fisher Scientific is taking over Trek Diagnostic Systems from Magellan Biosciences. Trek provides microbiology solutions including blood culture, microorganism identification, and antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) products.

“The range of products manufactured by Trek ideally complements our existing portfolio of microbiological testing technologies,” remarks Marc N. Casper, president and CEO of Thermo Fisher Scientific. “Advances in automation and the development of more rapid and reliable tests enable us to provide our customers with improvements in productivity and efficiency that are critical when responding to increasingly complex microbiological threats to human health.”

Based near Cleveland, OH, Trek Diagnostic Systems reportedly had full-year revenue in 2010 of $34 million and has 150 employees. The firm serves pharmaceutical and clinical laboratory markets and will be integrated into Thermo Fisher’s analytical technologies segment.

“The Trek acquisition adds automation and scale to Thermo Fisher Scientific’s existing microbiology business, which generates approximately 4% of revenues,” note Dan Leonard and Julian Cochran, life science tools and diagnostics analysts at Leerink Swann. “We believe Trek, with $34 million in annual revenues, is the number four player in the automated microbial identification/antibiotic susceptibility testing (i.d./AST) market, behind bioMerieux, Siemens, and Becton Dickinson.

“While we do not believe automated i.d./AST is a growth market, we believe the addition of automation to Thermo Fisher Scientific’s existing microbiology offering is strategically important, and Thermo Fisher Scientific has room to grow this business from a small base,” Leonard and Cochran add.

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