Company Announcements

Abcam’s sales for the fiscal year ending June 30 rose 17.5% to £97.8 million ($155.2 million) (see IBO 9/15/12). Excluding acquisitions, sales rose 11.9%, or 11.5% in constant currency. Adjusted operating profit grew 20.9% to £38.6 million ($61.3 million). Sales to the Americas, Europe/Middle East/Africa, Japan, and Asia Pacific grew 9.7%, 10.1%, 17.1% and 18.6% in constant currency to account for 43%, 35%, 12% and 9% of sales, respectively.

ImmunoReagents named Labex an Indian distributor.

In October, Exiqon named Takara Bio as a distributor of miRCURY LNA products in Japan, China, Hong Kong, South Korea and India, beginning in 2013.

Horizon Discovery established a Center of Excellence for gene editing with Washington University in St. Louis and the BRIGHT Institute.

Enzo Biochem Life Sciences sales for the fiscal year ending July 31 declined 11.3% to $43.7 million to make up 42% of sales (see IBO 10/15/12). Adjusted operating loss totaled $49.0 million, including an impairment charge of $24.5 million. As of July 31, the company had working capital of $21.5 million. The company completed a strategic review in the fourth quarter and initiated a plan to reduce operating expenses by $6.0 million in fiscal 2013 and improve Life Sciences profitability. For Life Sciences, the review included a reduction in workforce, reposition of manufacturing facilities, consolidation of sales offices, rationalization of low-margin products, and an R&D refocus toward pharmaceutical and diagnostic markets.

EMD Millipore entered into an agreement with an academic consortium to distribute more than 140 peer-validated neuroscience-specific monoclonal antibodies.

In October, International Stem Cell’s Lifeline Cell Technology announced that Fisher Scientific will sell its products through Fisher’s online catalogue as an Encompass Preferred Supplier.

Product Introductions

Fate Therapeutics and BD Biosciences launched the BD SMC4 pre-formulated cocktail of small molecules for improving cellular reprogramming efficiencies.

Promega released the CellTox Green Cytotoxicity Assay for use on cell cultures for up to 72 hours.

Promega introduced the ADCC (antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity) Reporter Bioassay, a novel bioluminescent assay for the quantification of Fc effector function of antibody-based molecules.

Curiox Biosystems released in October the DropArray Microplates for low-volume cell-based assays.

Sigma-Aldrich Sigma Life Science launched the affordable, serum-free Stemline Pluripotent Culture Medium.

In October, Corning Life Sciences released its serum-free Hepatocyte Maintenance Medium and stemgro MSC Medium.