Company Announcements

Merck Millipore’s 2010 sales grew 81.0% to €1,681 million ($2,211 million). Legacy Millipore products represented 38% of sales. Organic revenue grew 5.6%. Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia/Africa/Australasia accounted for 39%, 24%, 9% and 28% of revenue, respectively. Sales this year are forecast to grow 51%–56%.

In March, Thermo Fisher Scientific agreed to acquire certain assets of BD’s polystyrene roller bottle product line for cell culture production.

For 2010, SDIX’s revenues increased 4.4% to $28.4 million (see page 12). Sales of Life Sciences products grew 7.3% to $15.4 million due to sales to IVD, biopharmaceutical and content/reseller customers. Sales of Kits products rose 1.4% to $12.9 million due to sales of kits for E. coli detection in meat products, but sales of water quality products declined 1%, and sales of ag-GMO products fell 7%.

Shimadzu USA Manufacturing announced that it plans to build a 54,000-sq.-ft. manufacturing facility at its existing site in Canby, Oregon, which will add more than 50 jobs over three years. The site currently employs 100.

Sartorius’s 2010 revenues increased 9.5%, 6.4% in constant currencies, to €659.3 million ($867.5 million). Biotechnology sales increased 8.0%, 5.1% in constant currencies, to €432.6 million ($569.2 million). Mechatronics sale rose 12.4%, 8.9% in constant currencies, to €226.7 million ($298.3 million). Sales in 2011 for the company, as well as for each division, are expected to increase 6%–8% in constant currencies.

In March, Pall announced that it had separated the roles of chairman and CEO and that the Board elected Ronald L. Hoffman chairman.

Agilent announced in March the expansion of its Life Science and Chemical Analysis Center of Excellence in Bangalore and opened an adjacent Life Science application development lab, making the facility the largest Agilent research facility in the world.

Agilent and the National University of Singapore (NUS) announced in March an agreement for lipidomics research. Agilent will provide NUS with instruments and access to its scientists. NUS will serve as a reference site for Agilent.

Bio-Rad Laboratories announced in March the retirement of James J. Bennett from its Board.

Roche Diagnostics appointed Robert Yates as head of Roche Applied Science, effective April 1. He most recently served as global head of Business Development and Licensing at Roche Diagnostics.

Sigma-Aldrich opened its European headquarters in St. Gallen, Switzerland, in April. It is home to 50 employees.

Under a research collaboration, Catholic Health Initiatives’ Center for Translational Research will provide Caliper Life Sciences’ Caliper Discovery Alliances and Services unit with fresh human tumor samples for biomarker and standard-of-care drug resistance/sensitivity studies.