Sigma-Aldrich announced on April 2nd it has acquired all outstanding shares of Cleveland, Ohio-based, Research Organics, to expand the Company's buffer production capacity and to increase its portfolio of PharmaGrade raw materials for the biopharmaceutical and diagnostic markets.

Research Organics is a supplier of high purity biochemicals for use in molecular biology, diagnostics, cell culture, pharmaceuticals, biopharmaceuticals, life sciences and biotechnology and will transition into SAFC, the custom manufacturing and services business unit of Sigma-Aldrich.

Founded in the 1950's, Research Organics was a pioneer in manufacturing zwitterionic biological buffers and developing the HEPES buffer as an industry-standard.

Terms of the purchase were not disclosed. The company expects this acquisition to be neutral to earnings per share in 2012.