Laboratory Products
Company Announcements
In February, SP Industries named Brian Larkin as president and CEO, replacing William (Bill) Downs who retired. Most recently, Mr. Larken served as vice president and general manager for Becton Dickinson‘s US Diabetes Care business
Lab Automation
Company Announcements
In March, lab robot firm Opentrons announced the closing of $10 milllion seed funding, led by Khosla Ventures.
In April, Labcyte entered into an agreement with Merck, known as MSD outside the US and Canada, to utilize Acoustic-Mass Spectrometry drug discovery and development. As part of the agreement, prototype systems will be installed at select Merck sites.
Brooks Life Sciences announced in April the acquisition of BioSpeciMan, a Canadian provider of storage services for biological sample materials, for $55 million. BioSpeciMan generated approximately $2 million in 2017 revenues.
Product Introductions
In February, INTEGRA launched the ASSIST PLUS pipetting robot, which uses any INTEGRA electronic multichannel pipette. The company calls it the smallest and most economical pipetting robot on the market to offer variable tip spacing,
In March, Opentrons introduced the OT-2 lab robot for pipetting tasks and the new no-code Protocol Designer, an intuitive, visual design program, and a library of verified protocols. The OT-2 is designed to be affordable, customizable, and easy to use. It features a novel “tip probe” auto-calibration assistance and electronic pipettes. Pricing starts at $4,000.
Lab Equipment
Company Announcements
In April, Yamato Scientific America named six new distributors: Apex Laboratory Equipment for Minnesota, Front Range Scientific for Colorado, Laboratory Equipment for California, Process Control Solutions for Massachusetts, Scientific Resources Southwest for Texas and SciTech Sales for Georgia.
Product Introductions
In March, Phoseon Technology released the UV LED-based KeyPro KP100 decontamination system for validated, simple, fast decontamination of microplates and preparatory slides.
In March, Telstar launched the Boreas 86ºC ultra-low-temperature freezer. It is equipped with vacuum panels that ensure a high insulation quality and guarantee a temperature of -80ºC up to 28ºC.
Cole-Parmer introduced in March the Stuart SCF3 Microcentrifuge, which replaces the SCF2 Microcentrifuge. Compared to the predecessor, it features a faster speed of up to 15,000 RPM, as well as reduced weight and lower noise levels.
Teledyne Hanson Research debuted in April the Phoenix family of dry heat dissolution testing instruments for transdermal release rate measurement. The Phoenix product lineup includes an advanced dry heat diffusion cell, a compact 6-cell manual sampling system, and a robotic platform capable of unattended testing of up to 24 diffusion cells at once.
Electrochemistry
Product Introduction
In April, Thermo Fisher Scientific unveiled the Thermo Scientific Orion Star T900 Series of entry-level, automated potentiometric laboratory-grade titrators for a wide range of QC/QA applications. The Series consists of 4 automated titrators, 3 designed to enable dedicated pH, redox or ion potentiometric measurements, and 1 all-in-one unit that consolidates the analyses of all 3 parameters.
