Company Announcements

Cepheid’s 2009 product revenues increased 0.6% to $170.6 million (see IBO 1/31/10). Adjusted net loss was $5.0 million, compared to $7.1 million the year before. Clinical and Industrial sales increased 28.5% and 24.1% to make up 70% and 12% of sales. BioThreat and Partner sales declined 30.8% and 70.3% to make up 15% and 3% of sales. One direct customer accounted for 15% of sales. For 2010, the company expects revenues to be $195–$205 million and net loss to be $0.35–$0.27 per share.

ZyGEM agreed in January to distribute Rubicon Genomics’ PicoPlex single-cell amplification kits in Australia and New Zealand.

Under a license agreement with Life Technologies, Bar Harbor Technology will offer contract research services for real-time PCR experiments.

Fluidigm and SABiosciences, a QIAGEN company, introduced the RT2 Profiler PCR Arrays for the Fludigm BioMark systems, which consist of over 100 of SABiosciences’ pathway-focused gene expression panels validated for real-time PCR analysis on the BioMark System.

Product Introductions

Life Technologies introduced the Applied Biosystems ViralSEQ Vesivirus Detection Kit for the detection of Vesivirus 2117, a potential contaminant of mammalian cell culture–based bipharmaceutical manufacturing. It utilizes PrepSEQ magnetic-bead technology combined with TaqMan technology.

Life Technologies introduced the Applied Biosystems ViiA 7 Real-Time PCR System, which integrates a variety of qPCR and genotyping applications, and features the OptiFlex System, which provides the sensitivity to detect a single copy of starting genetic material.

In February, Agilent launched the Brilliant III Ultra-Fast QPCR and QRT-PCR Master Mix Kits, featuring a newly engineered Taq and novel hot-start technology for completion of real-time experiments in less than 40 minutes. They are Agilent’s third generation of real-time PCR agents.

Bibby Scientific released the Techne TC-PLUS thermal cycler, which can be configured in any multiblock format and accommodates all consumables types.

Bio-Rad Laboratories introduced the CRX automation systems for walk-way, high-throughput qPCR on its CFX96 and CFX384 real-time PCR detection systems. The systems feature a benchtop plate handler with the capacity to load up to 20 384-well plates, or 7,680 samples, at a time on the CFX384.

Sales/Orders of Note

In March, Analytik Jena AG announced the its Biometra GmbH subsidiary booked an order for several hundred thermocyclers, totaling more than €0.5 million ($639, 000), and stated that Biometra’s sales partner in China generates 10% of Biometra’s sales.