Hercules, CA 1/12/09—Bio-Rad Laboratories has acquired certain assets of SafePath Laboratories’ food diagnostics business. The acquisition will add serological immunoassay test kits for Trichinella, Toxoplasma and Salmonella pathogens to Bio-Rad’s food diagnostics product line. “With these products we are realizing our goal to be a one-stop shop for our customers’ food safety testing needs,” said […]

Company Announcements In the third quarter of 2008, Caliper Life Sciences restructured its business into three units (Discovery Research, Optical Molecular Imaging and Caliper Discovery Alliances and Services) to create a more scalable infrastructure, resulting in a workforce reduction. The initiative is expected to achieve $2.6 million in annualized savings. Caliper entered into a licensing […]

Columbus, OH 2/5/09—Mettler-Toledo International announced that it has initiated a Cost Reduction Program that will reduce its workforce by 5%, or 600 people. Other cost containment measures will also be undertaken. The Program is expected to reduce operational costs by more than $40 million on an annual basis. The company expects to record pre-tax restructuring […]

Company Announcements Under an agreement announced in December 2008, inXitu will design and manufacture a portfolio of portable X-ray diffraction (XRD) instruments exclusively for Innov-X Systems, including the Terra field-portable XRD/X-ray fluorescence (XRF) system. In January, Thermo Fisher Scientific opened a demonstration lab in Sugar Land, Texas, for its X-ray spectrometry petrochemical solutions and launched […]

Traditionally, the fourth quarter is the strongest quarter for sales of instruments and associated laboratory products due to budget releases. However, 2008 was not like any other year. Following the beginning of the banking crisis in September and the subsequent rapid deterioration of the worldwide economy, demand from major end-markets for analytical instruments, such as […]

Company Announcements Analytik Jena’s revenues for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2008, increased 23.1% organically to €53.1 million ($79.2 million) (see IBO 12/31/08). Analytical Solutions sales rose 23.3%, Bio Solutions sales grew 35.1% and Optical Solutions sales grew 16.9% to represent 76%, 8% and 16% of sales, respectively. Including the discontinued Project Solutions unit, […]

Piscataway, NJ 1/29/09—GE Healthcare announced that it has entered into a distribution agreement with Fisher Scientific, part of Thermo Fisher Scientific. Fisher Scientific will distribute a range of GE Healthcare Life Sciences products in North America, including film, electrophoresis, chromatography and nucleic acid purification products. “The presence Fisher Scientific has in the academic, pharmaceutical and […]

As IBO reported on November 30, 2008, government stimulus plans worldwide could help sales of lab instruments and products. Four countries that have approved stimulus packages this year are Norway, Canada, Australia and Germany. In January, Norway announced a NOK $2.87 billion ($415 million) stimulus plan. The plan included a 181% increase to NOK 900 […]

Analytical instrument and laboratory product companies are celebrating the passage of US President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), which was signed into law on February 17. The ARRA provides $600 million directly for laboratory instrument purchases. It is also expected that part of the funding for research grants will […]

Despite the US government’s approval of a stimulus plan and the infusion of additional capital into the financial system, the markets failed to rally in February. The housing market further deteriorated and unemployment claims reached record highs. On February 27, fourth-quarter 2008 US GDP was revised downward to an annualized contraction of 6.2%, the worst […]