Once again volatility ruled the markets in July. The major indexes experienced several extreme swings, both positive and negative, mainly due to conflicting news of positive earnings reports and analyst concerns over the debt markets. In response to subprime and other mortgage debt issues, lenders reported tightening liquidity restrictions in the corporate sector. Such limitations […]

R&D spending by analytical and life science instrument companies showed a robust increase last year, according to IBO’s annual survey of R&D spending, indicating healthy business conditions and an optimistic forecast among instrument companies. In fact, several companies, both large and small, made sizable increases to R&D. R&D spending by the 15 instrument companies surveyed […]

First quarter revenues for the IBO Lab Equipment/Consumables Index jumped 12.4% to $799 million. Operating profits improved 25.6% to $232 million, and operating margin climbed 310 basis points to 29.0% of sales. Fisher Scientific’s merger with Thermo Electron had a significant impact on the revenue and operating growth for the Index (see IBO 5/15/06). Fourteen […]

The 2007 AAPS (American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists) National Biotechnology Conference (NBC) was hosted in sunny San Diego, California, from June 24–27. With a mild breeze, the temperature ranged between 70° and 75° F, one could only hope that the meeting would have taken place on the beautiful sandy beaches, instead of in a stuffy […]

Gamma Medica-Ideas, a provider of preclinical imaging instruments for in vivo small-animal imaging, was founded as Gamma Medica in 2000. In June 2005, Gamma Medica merged with the Norwegian company Ideas ASA, a manufacturer of solid-state digital detector electronics and imaging detector subsystems, to form Gamma Medica-Ideas (see IBO 10/15/05). Gamma Medica-Ideas has 85 employees. […]

Numerous countries are funding national nanotechnology efforts in order to develop the R&D and infrastructure capabilities to support private and public opportunities in nanotech technologies and products in fields ranging from medicine, to semiconductors, to chemicals. At stake is industrial and scientific leadership in a new field whose potential impact has been compared to biotechnology […]

In the June 30 issue, IBO examined the acquisition of molecular diagnostic providers by companies traditionally associated with research instrumentation and products. QIAGEN NV is one such company. QIAGEN currently offers 34 CE-marked IVD assays, six CE-marked IVD sample preparation products, nine China State Food and Drug Administration– approved IVD assays and one FDA 510K-approved […]

Recent acquisitions have highlighted the evolving relationship of instrument companies and the molecular diagnostics market. Last month, QIAGEN acquired Digene, the largest provider of human papillomavirus (HPV) diagnostics tests, for $1.6 billion (see IBO 6/15/07). Earlier this year, Agilent acquired Stratagene for $246.2 million (see IBO 4/15/07). These developments follow acquisitions last year by Luminex […]