bioMerieux Sells Division That Includes Some 50 Workers at Durham Operation

bioMerieux

is selling part of its operation in Durham as part of a larger transaction with Ireland-based Trinity Biotech.

The sale includes the hemostasis part of bioMerieux. Test kits for the analysis of the fluidity of blood are manufactured in Durham. Instruments are built in St. Louis.

Some 50 of bioMerieux's 550 employees in Durham are involved in hemostasis work, but no one is expected to lose employment because of the sale, said Brian Armstrong, chief financial officer of bioMerieux's U.S. division.

"We don't expect anyone to lose their jobs because they will either be absorbed into other positions, or Trinity is interested in taking those people," Armstrong told WRAL Local Tech Wire.

The Durham facility is the U.S. headquarters for bioMerieux.

It is also one of our two major manufacturing locations for bioMerieux in the U.S. The facility is used to produce amino acid tests as well as a blood culture system, Armstrong said.

Trinity said hemostasis operations in Durham would be transferred to Ireland. Hemostasis operations in St. Louis that are also part of the deal will be transferred to a site in New York.

bioMerieux had originally acquired the Durham facility in Treyburn Corporate Park from Organon Teknika in 2001.

Trinity is paying bioMerieux as much as $51.9 million for its Coagulation product line. It includes diagnostic tests that are manufactured primarily in Durham as well as automated instruments that are made in St. Louis, Trinity said in a statement.

"As part of the transition, Trinity will transfer production of the diagnostic tests and instruments from bioMérieux's facilities in North Carolina to Dublin and from St Louis to Jamestown, New York respectively," the company said in a statement.