In the calendar-year second quarter, major analytical instrument and laboratory supply companies in general reported an increase in business compared to calendar-year first quarter as applied markets, Asia and consumables continued to be the main growth drivers. In addition, Europe gained some momentum as both Waters and Dionex reported a return to European sales growth, […]
Despite sustained economic volatility during August, the US equity markets and US dollar strengthened. Investors were encouraged by better-than-expected manufacturing data, consumer confidence and durable goods orders for July, as well as falling crude oil prices, which declined 7% to end the month at $115.45 a barrel. On August 27, the US Commerce Department revised […]
For nearly five years, microreactor technology has been touted as being on the verge of a break through and of being adopted in place of accepted methods such as batch reactions and microwave synthesis for both large- and small-scale organic chemical synthesis. Due to the simplicity of batch reactions and the lack of a killer […]
Gold Award IBO’s 2008 Gold Award for laboratory equipment design goes to Hamilton’s automatic pipettor, the Microlab Nimbus. The idea for the Nimbus came about after “Hamilton identified an unmet demand in the biopharmaceutical marketplace for . . . automated pipetting in key fundamental applications such as plate replication, serial dilution and reagent additions, while […]
Over the past 14 years, the annual IBO Design Awards have showcased the best in analytical instrument industrial design. Industrial design encompasses the appearance and form of an instrument. The industrial design is a fundamental part of a product, helping determine how the end-user will evaluate, use, maintain and value a product, and, indirectly, how […]
Gold Award IBO’s 2008 Gold Award for portable instrument industrial design goes to GE’s total organic carbon (TOC) analyzer, the Checkpoint. According to Steve Poirier, vice president of Marketing and Sales for GE Water and Process Technologies, the main goals of the design was to create a product that was lightweight, had a small footprint […]
Analytical instrument makers have two choices about how to sell their products: directly or through distributors. The choice is especially important for sales in other countries. Although selling directly ensures more control over the sale, direct contact with the end-user and a full percentage of the sale, it also requires substantial investment and greater resources. […]
In the second quarter of 2008, revenues for IBO’s Laboratory Sales Index grew 13.7% to $4,624 million, compared to growth of 13.3% in second quarter of 2007. Operating profit climbed 20.4% to $747 million, and operating margin climbed 90 basis points to 16.2% of sales. While several companies, such as Affymetrix, Harvard Bioscience and Tecan, […]
Disappointing economic news continued to weigh on the US markets this month. On July 31, the US reported second-quarter economic growth of 1.9%, compared to economists’ expectations of 2.3%. The US also lowered its GDP estimates for the first quarter of this year and the fourth quarter of 2007 to 0.9% and negative 0.2%, respectively. […]
Despite the economic downturn, sales of analytical and life science instruments and related aftermarket products and service have remained healthy. Steady industrial end-markets, demand from Asia, and robust biotech and contract research organization (CRO) sales have offset cautious spending by big pharma and a mixed academic market. As the table on page 3 shows, first-half […]
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IBO (Instrument Business Outlook) is a twice-monthly newsletter aimed at providing decision-makers with the latest and most complete information available on the life science and analytical instrument industry, and lab product markets. IBO delivers the latest curated industry news, information and trends, as well as SDi data and analysis to deliver the maximum in industry insight with a minimum time investment for executives and investors.

