Company Announcements

Sartorius Lab Products & Services’ second quarter revenue grew 6.2%, 8.9% in constant currency, to €106.6 million ($126.9 million) (see IBO 7/31/18). Orders rose 4.3% in constant currency. In the first half, organic sales rose 12% in constant currency, with Essen BioScience contributing approximately 5% to segment growth. By region, constant currency first-half sales grew 20.9%, 19.9% and 3.3% for the Americas, Asia/Pacific and EMEA, respectively.

Sartorius announced in August the launch of the nonprofit Life Science Factory in early 2019 to promote startups and attract entrepreneurs from the life science sector. The Life Science Factory strategy provides for the interaction of lab areas, coworking rooms and network offerings, such as mentoring and company financing.

Xylem’s second quarter Test revenue totaled $89 million to make up 7% of company revenues.

In August, three researchers filed suit against Affymetrix (Thermo Fisher Scientific), Applied Biosystems (Thermo Fisher), Illumina and former executives at the companies, alleging misappropriation of trade secrets under New York common law, racketeering and fraud, among other complaints. The suit concerns “zip code sequences” used to create “Universal DNA Arrays.”

Becton, Dickinson named Jeffrey W. Henderson to its Board in August. He was formerly CFO of Cardinal Health and currently sits on the Boards of Qualcomm and FibroGen.

In August, QIAGEN named South Africa-based The Scientific Group, a subsidiary of Ascendis Medical, its exclusive commercial partner for Africa, excluding South Africa, and the Maghreb. QIAGEN currently serves Africa through its office in Johannesburg.

Harvard Bioscience CFO Robert E. Gagnon resigned in August.

In August, HORIBA committed $9 million to the Advanced Power and Energy Program at the University of California, Irvine to establish the Horiba Institute for Mobility and Connectivity. The Program will focus on research and education efforts to combine the energy and transportation sectors into an integrated and complementary system.

Diploma CEO Richard Ingram stepped down from his role and as a Board member in August.

In September, Roper Technologies named COO Neil Hunn as president and CEO. Former President and CEO Brian Jellison, who stepped down for medical reasons, remains as chairman.

On September 1, Waters appointed Linda Baddour, former CFO of PRA Health Sciences, and Gary Hendrickson, chairman, president and CEO of Valspar, to its Board.

In September, Waters opened the International Food and Water Research Center in Singapore. The Center will support scientists throughout the world working in areas such as food authenticity, food fraud discovery, water contamination research, food quality enhancement and new ingredient/formulation studies.

Techcomp Europe announced in September the expansion of its Scottish operations, purchasing an additional 40,000 ft² (3,716 m²) to add of assembly production, laboratory, R&D and office accommodation as well as house machining, fabrication and warehousing.

In September, Agilent Technologies named Christoph Thaiss, PhD, assistant professor of microbiology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania as the winner of the 2018 Agilent Early Career Professor Award. Dr. Thaiss’ research focuses on the microbiome and how it mediates the response of its host to environmental cues, which strongly influences the organism’s health and disease states.

Roland Diggelmann, CEO of Roche’s Diagnostics Division and member of the Corporate Executive Committee, left the company effective September 30. Until a successor is named, Michael Heuer, Region Head Europe, Middle East, Africa and Latin America for Roche Diagnostics, will assume leadership of Roche’s Diagnostics and become a member of the Corporate Executive Committee.

Thermo Fisher Scientific announced that former Patheon CEO James C. Mullen will join its Board in November.