New Orleans, Louisiana, played host to the 59th annual Pittsburgh conference and exhibition (Pittcon), which was held March 1–7 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. Although Pittcon took place against a backdrop of escalating fears of a US recession, one would have never known it. Companies were upbeat about future business prospects and the […]

St. Louis, MO 3/7/08—Sigma-Aldrich and Oxford Biomedica have settled their patent litigation against Open Biosystems (see IBO 6/15/06). Under the confidential settlement, Open Biosystems will acquire certain license rights for use of Oxford BioMedica’s LentiVector gene delivery technology in research activities. Other details were not disclosed.

Fourth quarter 2007 Life Science Index sales rose 14.4% to $2,419 million, while operating profit jumped 29.8% to $445 million. Operating margins improved 220 basis points to 18.4% of revenues. Year-over-year Life Science Index sales increased 12.5% to $8,651 million. Operating profit grew 23.2% to $1,357 million, and operating margins increased 140 basis points to […]

There were certainly no lack of nominees for IBO’s choice of the top three product introductions at Pittcon 2008. In choosing the top three products, IBO selected systems that demonstrated notable technical achievements based on the vendor’s specifications, were innovative in their analytical approach and product packaging, and demonstrated real commercial potential. After all, the […]

Paoli, PA 2/26/08—AMETEK has acquired Motion Control Group (MCG), a manufacturer of motors and motion control solutions for a range of markets, including the medical and life sciences markets. MCG generates annual sales of approximately $26 million. “MCG greatly enhances our capability in providing precision motion technology solutions,” stated AMETEK Chairman and CEO Frank S. […]

Sunnyvale, CA 2/5/08 and 2/25/08; Houston, Texas 2/7/08—Publicly held Integrated Media Holdings (IMHI) has acquired TeleChem International for 35 million shares, or approximately 64.4% of the outstanding shares, following a 1 for 30 reverse stock split. TeleChem operates under the name Array It and provides cost-effective microarray systems and products. “The business combination with IMHI […]

Norwalk, CT 2/29/08—Applera has announced its Celera subsidiary, one of the company’s two tracking stocks, along with Applied Biosystems, will pursue a possible spin-off from Applera to become a separately traded public firm (see IBO 8/15/07). Celera provides diagnostic products and services. Holders of the Celera tracking stock would receive Celera shares in a one-for-one […]

Once again this year, the seasonally strong calendar year 2007 fourth quarter did not disappoint, topping off a year of solid growth for some of the analytical instrument industry’s largest companies. Of the 10 analytical and life science instrument businesses discussed on pages 9–11 that presented quarterly results in US dollars, eight posted double-digit revenue […]