The bio-tools giant, Thermo Fisher Scientific, today reported modest increases in year over year revenue for Q3 2024.  Most of the gains were attributed to Specialty Diagnostics, and Analytical Instruments, while Life Sciences Solutions, dipped slightly. Laboratory Products and Pharmaceutical Services (largest sector) was essentially flat.  As the Bio-tools sector continues to work it way out of the year-long…

Yesterday, Danaher reported Life Sciences revenues rose nearly 5 percent in Q3 2024 relative to Q3 2023, as did their Diagnostics revenues.  However, when including Core revenues, Danaher projected an overall single digit revenue decline in the 4th quarter and for the full year for the company.  The Life Sciences and Diagnostics increases for the large conglomerate are a…

As of recent estimates, the global market for reagents used in Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) is significant. In 2023, the market for NGS reagents was valued at approximately $2.5 billion to $3 billion annually. This includes a range of reagents and consumables such as sequencing kits, libraries, and other materials required for NGS processes.

The NGS reagent market is driven by…

While the bio-tools sector has experienced a notable post pandemic revenue decline, there is fresh evidence of the impact of reduced spending related to COVID in Asia.  This week two Chinese genomic tool suppliers, BGI Genomics, and MGI Tech, reported a 10% and 16% revenue decline, respectively, in the first half of 2004. BGI Genomics specifically cited COVID spending…

Venture investment into U.S. biotechs is back at pre-COVID levels as of June of 2024. That should start to impact the biotools sector. Investment firms seem more selective in the companies they favor, and some are looking toward M&A rather than IPOs. After a turbulent few years, 2024 has given the biotechnology industry some signs of a return to normalcy….

August 8, 2024: Industry budgets are impacting 10x instrument placements.

“Our customers are under budget pressure, which has most acutely resulted in cuts to capital expenditures budgets and elongated purchase cycles, impacting our instrument revenue this quarter,” 10x CEO and Cofounder Serge Saxonov said on a conference call following the release of the results. “We believe these macro factors and…

In a recent summary of the presumptive presidential nominees’ positions on issues related to science and the environment including GMO labeling, global climate change and fossil fuels, there was a clear dichotomy.  That is not likely to surprise many in an election year.  However, we were interested in seeing what actual scientists thought of these “Science and Environment” political issues.

Percepta polled…

In this campaign year, politicians have once again started to consider the issue of regulating pharmaceutical pricing policies.  It’s not a new concept but recent practices of certain pharmaceutical companies have given this topic new life.

An article in The New York Times on October 4th reported on several pharmaceutical companies that were buying existing patented therapeutic drugs and dramatically…

Approximately 570 diagnostic tests and testing systems have been approved by the FDA for exclusion from regulation under CLIA criteria.  These tests are referred to as CLIA waived tests.

Roughly 4% of all CLIA waived tests in existence in the United States are HIV tests or test systems. Though all CLIA waived tests, including HIV tests, are designed to be…

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) regulates all non-research laboratory testing performed on humans in the U.S. through the 1988 Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (or CLIA for short). Many of the tests performed are genetic tests that assess DNA and/or RNA.  For years this amounted mostly to PCR and blotting methods.  However, more and more clinical labs…