Merck announces it has agreed to purchase two biotechnology firms that will help it discover and produce products.

Merck announces it has agreed to purchase two biotechnology firms that will help it discover and produce products. It announces it has agreed to buy GlycoFi Inc., of Lebanon, NH, for $400 million. It also agreed to purchase Abmaxis Inc., Santa Clara, CA, for $80 million.

GlycoFi has developed a yeast-based, proprietary technology to develop proteins to treat or prevent diseases. Merck says the technology can result in higher yields and faster development of products than traditional methods for making biologics in mammalian cell cultures. Abmaxis has a technology to assist with the identification of proteins known as monoclonal antibodies that can serve as the basis for biologic products.