Company Announcements

As part of its new out-licensing strategy, Life Technologies announced in September the finalization of cell line license agreements to provide rights to its Chinese hamster ovary cell lines for the production of recombinant protein used as therapeutic agents and vaccines.

In October, Teledyne Tekmar partnered with Analytical Sciences Group, which will be responsible for sales coverage in the Ohio River Valley and the Great Lakes area.

Nine-month revenue for Roche Diagnostics’ Applied Science unit increased 4.8%, 8% in local currencies, to CHF 646 million ($627 million) to make up 8% of the Diagnostics Division’s sales. Sales for the sequencing business rose 12%, microarray business revenue grew 22% and custom biotech sales grew 20%. Sales for qPCR and nucleic acid purification fell 3% due to decreasing demand for HINI testing. In local currency, Applied Science’s North American sales rose 3%, rest of world sales grew 18% and sales to Europe, the Middle East and Africa increased 9% to make up 38%, 22% and 40% of unit revenue, respectively.

Oxford Instruments announced in October the opening of a new office in Chengdu, China, its fifth location in the country.

In the third quarter, revenue for Merck Millipore was CHF 573.7 million ($557.0 million) to make up 62% of Merck Chemicals sales and 24% of Merck KGaA sales (see page 12). Legacy Millipore sales increased 3%, 4% excluding currency effects, to CHF 313.6 million ($304.5 million). Legacy Merck Laboratory Business and Life Science Solutions sales grew 14.7% to CHF 260.1 million ($252.5 million). Merck Millipore’s 2010 revenue is expected to increase more than 80% to CHF 1.67 billion ($1.62 billion) and operating results are expected to grow over 167% to CHF 29 million ($28 million), with a 17% return on revenue.

Sales for Hitachi High-Technologies’ Science and Medical Systems segment for the quarter ending September 30 grew 1.7% to ¥30,600 million ($356.9 million) (see IBO 10/31/10). Segment operating profit increased 10.7% to ¥3,100 million ($36.2 million). Within the segment, General Purpose Analytical Instruments sales increased 12.8% to ¥4,400 million ($51.3 million), Electron Microscope sales rose 17.9% to ¥7,900 ($92.1 million), sales of Clinical Chemistry and Immunodiagnostic Analyzers fell 8.6% to ¥13,900 million ($162.1 million), and sales of Biotechnology Products and Others grew 4.8% to ¥4,400 million ($51.3 million). For the fiscal year, Science and Medical Systems are expected to decline 7% to ¥114,500 million ($1,335 million).

In October, Pall opened its first office in the Middle East in Dubai, UAE.

Product Introductions

Overbrook Scientific introduced the multivendor, harmonized analytical instrumentation qualification (AIQ) service in October.