Sigma-Aldrich said today it has acquired the Duolink® product portfolio from Olink Bioscience for an undisclosed price.

The acquisition includes intellectual property, sales, marketing and manufacturing assets, according to Sigma-Aldrich—which itself is being bought by Merck KGaA for $17 billion, in a deal the company said last month was expected to close by the end of November.

The Duolink product line is designed for researchers studying biological pathways and seeking improved sensitivity to uncover disease biomarkers. Since 2013, Sigma-Aldrich has distributed Duolink reagents, along with pre-validated antibody pairs for proximity ligation assays (in situ PLA®).

“Duolink is valuable to our customers and complements the rest of Sigma-Aldrich's Protein Biology portfolio,” Amanda Halford, vp, academic research for Sigma-Aldrich, said in a statement. “The acquisition of Duolink allows Sigma-Aldrich to provide comprehensive solutions for enabling experimental reproducibility, with continued reliability in supply and quality.”

Duolink technology, based on PLA technology, is intended to enable researchers in visualizing low levels of proteins, protein modifications and individual protein interactions directly in fixed cells and tissue samples, without the need for overexpression.

According to Olink, the technology can significantly enhance the rigor and reproducibility of scientific experiments, aided by dual recognition of antibody pairs.

“Duolink has been a very important product in the history and development of Olink, and we feel that with this acquisition by Sigma-Aldrich, it will be in very good hands and continue to be a great success,” stated Olink CEO Jon Heimer.

Heimer added that Olink will now focus its resources on further developing its Proseek® Multiplex product line for human protein biomarker research; establishing local commercial organizations in Europe and North America; and continuing to develop new tools for researchers.

On its website, Olink said Duolink was now the sole responsibility of Sigma-Aldrich. Olink also thanked its customers: “It was great working with you and watching the product and its applications develop so successfully!”

The deal with Olink is Sigma-Aldrich’s second in the past weeks. On October 20, Sigma-Aldrich said it agreed to sell its laboratory research chemicals business to Honeywell for about €105 million ($115.1 million).

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