Autoclaves are found in many industrial and scientific labs where the sterilization of materials is required to ensure products are free of microorganisms and bacteria. Autoclaves are used to sterilize liquids, reagents, cell culture media, lab equipment and glassware. They are also used to decontaminate laboratory waste prior to disposal. Autoclaves employ the rather simple […]

Company Announcements Phenomenex voluntarily dismissed its complaint against Thermo Fisher Scientific (see IBO 12/31/09). UK-based Hichrom acquired Beckman Coulter’s Ultrasphere HPLC column product family. Chiral Technologies Europe signed a distribution agreement with Hichrom for the UK. Armen Instruments sold its flash chromatography business to Interchim in January. BAC BV added a new bioprocess affinity chromatography […]

Company Announcements ATLAS Biolabs GmbH joined Roche NimbleGen’s certified service program for targeted enrichment. In February, RainDance Technologies named S. Roopom Banerjee president and CEO. Recently, he was director of Healthcare Investment Banking at Leerink Swann. Former CEO Christopher McNary now serves as COO. RainDance Technologies partnered with Ambry Genetics for sequence enrichment and targeted […]

Company Announcements ZyGEM opened a European support office in Bemmel, the Netherlands. Innova Biosciences appointed Genetimes Technology and NeoBioscience Technology as Chinese distributors. In March, Polyplus-transfection SA signed an agreement with metabion GmbH to manufacture and commercialize its Zip Nucleic Acid oligonucleotides for research and in vitro diagnostics applications. Lonza Cologne AG will exclusively distribute […]

In February, SEAL Analytical, a Porvair company, introduced the AQ1 Discrete Analyzer. Discrete analyzers measure the alkalinity, as well as chloride and nitrate content of a sample, among other analytes, in individual reactions using automated colorimetric analysis. This is particularly relevant to the environmental market for applications such as nutrient, water and wastewater analysis. Discrete […]

Company Announcements Thermo Fisher Scientific will add 104 jobs over three years to its Asheville, North Carolina facility, which manufactures cold-storage equipment, centrifuges and ovens. Gerresheimer’s Life Science Research reported 2009 sales declined 5.8% to €87.4 million ($121.4 million), and fell 11.9% excluding currency effects, to make up 9% of revenue. Adjusted EBITDA fell 27.4% […]

The RAPEX 2009 Annual Report details non-food consumer-product safety notifications. The RAPEX system enables EU member states to share information about dangerous products. The number of measures taken and notifications about dangerous products rose 7% in 2009 to 1,993. The highest number of notifications were issued for toys (28% of notifications), and clothing and textiles […]

There are more than 50 countries in Africa, yet the region’s research output remains disproportionately low. According to an analysis of research papers in Thomson Reuters’ Web of Sciences database published between 1999 and 2008, Africa’s north region (five countries) accounted for the greatest portion of the continent’s scientific output, publishing 10,500 papers in 2008. […]

According to a survey conducted earlier this year by biotechnologie.de for the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, in 2009, there were 531 firms “occupied primarily with biotech” in Germany, a 6.0% increase. The number of employees at these companies grew 3.5% to 14,950. However, revenues declined 0.3% to €2,184 million ($2,914 million), and R&D […]

In aggregate, US, European, Canadian and Australian biotech companies recorded a $3.7 billion net profit in 2009, making it the first profitable year for the industry. However, raising capital remained difficult, with a few established companies gaining the bulk of new capital. Capital raised by US biotech firms rose 39% to $18.0 billion. Revenues for […]