Company Announcements

In February, QIAGEN announced the opening of QIAGEN Business Services Manila, a shared services facility in the Philippines. The center will provide services related to supply chain management, customer care and accounting, as well as technical services and other sales support activities for the US and APAC. Headcount is expected to reach 200. QIAGEN’s existing Shared Service Center is based in Wroclaw, Poland, and has more than 350 employees.

Agilent Technologies announced in February a strategic scientific collaboration agreement with Imperial College London. Agilent will support Imperial with a broad range of instruments to equip a new Agilent-sponsored Measurement Suite. Application areas that will benefit include clinical diagnostics, biopharmaceuticals, energy and chemicals, environmental science, food testing and agriculture, materials research and proteomics.

Thermo Fisher Scientific announced in March that it plans to build a $35 million, 86,111 ft² (8,000 m²) pharma services supply chain facility in Rheinfelden (Baden), Germany. The facility will increase European capacity for cold and ambient clinical trial materials. Construction is scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter and take 12–18 months. As many as 200 employees will work at the site.

KentOnline reported in March that Thermo Fisher Scientific is proposing to relocate a manufacturing facility for plastics from Ashford, UK, to existing facilities in Mexico, China and Denmark by 2019, potentially affecting 170 positions.

Harvard Bioscience’s 2017 revenues declined 2.6% to $101.9 million (see Bottom Line), with organic revenues down 0.2%. Direct sales accounted for 65% of revenues, while self-manufactured products represented 62%. Adjusted operating profit rose 89.2% to $3.7 million. For 2018, sales are forecast to reach $118–$123 million, up 16%–21%.

In March, PerkinElmer signed a letter of intent with India’s Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council to work together under a five-year partnership to promote India-led startups and innovators in the areas of biomedical, biotechnology and public health. According to BIRAC, the partnership covers medical devices, point of care, algorithms and information technology/software in areas such as  maternal health, newborn health and food.

Hitachi High­Technologies will open the 6,997 ft² (650 m²) Hitachi High­Tech Science Park Shanghai Lab in China in June to promote the development, sale and support of analytical instruments. Hitachi High­Tech will also utilize the Shanghai Lab as a total solution service center for  XRF and thermal analysis instruments. The lab will brings the company’s global lab structure to 9 locations in 5 countries.

Judges Scientific’s 2017 revenues grew 24.6% to £71.4 million ($91.5 million) (see Bottom Line), including organic growth of 17.7%. Adjusted operating profit rose 52.3% to £10.9 million ($14.0 million), driven by strong revenue growth and currency effects. By segment, Materials Sciences revenue increased 21.0% to £34.1 million ($43.7 million), while Vacuum sales grew 28.2% to £37.3 million ($47.8 million).

FOSS’ 2017 revenues increased 4.9% to DKK 2,226 million ($337 million) (see Bottom Line), including organic growth of 6.9%. Sales of process instruments grew 35% to make up 8% of revenues. Products launched within the last three years made up 23% of sales. The company also highlighted its new Digital Services for monitoring and remote control of FOSS instruments from a virtual control room. Over the next five years, the company plans to invest over DKK 1 billion ($152 million) in R&D.

Orders and Sales of Note

In March, Northern Illinois University (NIU) announced the launch of a five-year equipment-purchase program involving its Division of Research and Innovation Partnerships and Shimadzu. NIU will receive discounted rates on the equipment, a suite of software, and technical support and maintenance through the Shimadzu Partnership for Academics, Research and Quality of Life initiative. A laboratory housing most of the new instruments will also be established. Instrumentation provided will include an XRF spectrometer, as well as triple quadrupole LC/MS, MALDI-TOF and GC/MS systems.