June 30 (Bloomberg) -- Qiagen NV, a Dutch maker of tools for medical research, agreed to buy closely held Nextal Biotechnology Inc. of Canada for as much as $14.2 million to gain access to new sampling tools.

Venlo, Netherlands-based Qiagen will pay about $9.7 million in cash and as much as $4.5 million ``subject to certain milestones,'' Qiagen said today in a PRNewswire statement. The costs of less than $1 million will be booked in the second quarter.

The transaction will add about $3 million in net sales and won't affect net income in 2006, Qiagen said. Nextal's product sales are growing ``very rapidly,'' Qiagen said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Chantal Britt in Stockholm at cbritt@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: June 30, 2005 03:01 EDT