Thermo to sell Athena Diagnostics and Lancaster Laboratories

Thermo Fisher Scientific has announced that it will be selling its Athena Diagnostics and Lancaster Laboratories businesses for a total of $940 million.

Lancaster Laboratories will be sold to Brussels-based laboratory services provider, Eurofins Scientific. Lancaster Laboratories is a contract-testing laboratory that provides comprehensive analytical services for pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical and environmental sciences customers, with operations in the US and Ireland.

The company will also be selling Athena Diagnostics to Quest Diagnostics. Athena Diagnostics, based in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA, is a reference laboratory that provides comprehensive diagnostic testing for neurological and other diseases, with an emphasis on gene-based tests.

"Athena and Lancaster have performed very well within our company and we believe that these strategic buyers will offer them even greater opportunities for growth in the long term," said Marc N. Casper, president and chief executive officer of Thermo Fisher Scientific. "The transactions position both businesses in companies that are closely aligned with the unique contract laboratory services they provide and, at the same, will generate significant proceeds that we can redeploy to create shareholder value."

Thermo Fisher expects to close these transactions in the second quarter of 2011, subject to customary closing conditions and applicable regulatory approvals.

For more information visit www.thermo.com