Jonathan Milner Abcam is paying over £100m for a US rabbit antibody business, Epitomics International. The Cambridge company announced the acquisition today, along with half year results showing sales up 13.5% to £44.7m, with profit up 15.9% to £17.6m, and £56m in the bank. The American company, headquartered in San Francisco and with operations in China, is focused on rabbit monoclonal antibodies used in research, and has 250 employees. Epitomics antibodies are also used in diagnosis and prognosis for colon, prostate and ovarian cancer, plus lymphoma. Abcam aims to become the world's leading life science tools company and with the latest acquisition furthers the quest. Commenting on the deal and the half-year results, chief executive Jonathan Milner, the Cambridge cancer scientist who started Abcam selling antibodies door-to-door from an ice bucket to fellow lab workers, said: "We are particularly pleased that, despite a tough macro-economic climate, Abcam has delivered revenue growth ahead of our peers while also delivering strong profits growth and cash generation. "Once again these results demonstrate the strength of our business model and the scalability of our ecommerce platform." Apart from the ice-bucket round, Abcam has always sold online. "These are exciting times for us as we continue to source new products to add to our catalogue while also searching for M&A opportunities. We are delighted to have announced today an agreement to acquire Epitomics, which marks a gigantic step towards our ambition of creating the world's leading life science reagents company."
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