Exclusive: Thermo Fisher nears $13 billion Life Tech deal

By Soyoung Kim and Greg Roumeliotis NEW YORK (Reuters) – Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc is nearing a deal to buy genetic testing equipment maker Life Technologies Corp for close to $13 billion, according to four people familiar with the matter, in what would be one of the year’s biggest corporate takeovers. The acquisition would catapult Thermo Fisher into the hot field of genetic sequencing, where researchers, drugmakers and doctors are uncovering the genetic factors underpinning diseases to better tailor treatments to the patients. …