We are a global biotechnology tools company dedicated to helping our customers
make scientific discoveries and ultimately improve the quality of life. Our
systems, reagents, and services enable researchers to accelerate scientific
exploration, driving to discoveries and developments that better the quality
of life. Life Technologies customers do their work across the biological spectrum,
advancing personalized medicine, regenerative science, molecular diagnostics,
agricultural and environmental research, and 21st century forensics. The Company
employs approximately 9,700 people, has a presence in more than 100 countries,
and possesses a rapidly growing intellectual property estate of approximately
3,600 patents and exclusive licenses.
Our systems and reagents enable, simplify and accelerate a broad spectrum of
biological research of genes, proteins and cells within academic and life science
research and commercial applications. Our scientific expertise assists in making
biodiscovery research techniques more effective and efficient for pharmaceutical,
biotechnology, agricultural, government and academic researchers with backgrounds
in a wide range of scientific disciplines.
We offer many different products and services, and are continually developing
and/or acquiring others. Some of our specific product categories include the
following:
• “High-throughput” gene cloning and expression technology,
which allows customers to clone and expression-test genes on an industrial scale.
• Pre-cast electrophoresis products, which improve the speed, reliability
and convenience of separating nucleic acids and proteins.
• Antibodies, which allow researchers to capture and label proteins, visualize
their location through use of Molecular Probes dyes and discern their role in
disease.
• Magnetic beads, which are used in a variety of settings, such as attachment
of molecular labels, nucleic acid purification, and organ and bone marrow tissue
type testing.
• Molecular Probes fluorescence-based technologies, which facilitate the
labeling of molecules for biological research and drug discovery.
• Transfection reagents, which are widely used to transfer genetic elements
into living cells enabling the study of protein function and gene regulation.
• PCR and Real Time PCR systems and reagents, which enable researchers
to amplify and detect targeted nucleic acids (DNA and RNA molecules) for a host
of applications in molecular biology.
• Cell culture media and reagents used to preserve and grow mammalian
cells, which are used in large scale cGMP bio-production facilities to produce
large molecule biologic therapies.
• RNA Interference reagents, which enable scientists to selectively “turn
off” genes in biology systems to gain insight into biological pathways.
• Capillary electrophoresis and massively parallel SOLiDtm DNA sequencing
systems and reagents, which are used to discover sources of genetic and epigenetic
variation, to catalog the DNA structure of organisms de novo, to verify the
composition of genetic research material, and to apply these genetic analysis
discoveries in markets such as forensic human identification.
• High performance mass spectrometer systems which are used in numerous
applications such as drug discovery and clinical development of therapeutics
as well as in basic biological research, food and beverage quality testing,
environmental testing, and other applied or clinical research applications.
We divide our target customer base into three major categories:
• Life science researchers. The life sciences research market consists
of laboratories generally associated with universities, medical research centers,
government institutions such as the United States National Institutes of Health,
or the NIH, and other research institutions as well as biotechnology, pharmaceutical,
diagnostic, energy, agricultural, and chemical companies. Researchers at these
institutions are using our products and services in a broad spectrum of scientific
activities, such as: searching for drugs or other techniques to combat a wide
variety of diseases, such as cancer and viral and bacterial disease; researching
diagnostics for disease identification or for improving the efficacy of drugs
to targeted patient groups; and assisting in vaccine design, bioproduction,
and agriculture. Our products and services provide the research tools needed
for genomics studies, proteomics studies, gene splicing, cellular analysis,
and other key research applications that are required by these life science
researchers.
• Commercial producers of biopharmaceutical and other high valued proteins.
We serve industries that apply genetic engineering to the research and commercial
production of useful but otherwise rare or difficult to obtain substances, such
as proteins, interferons, interleukins, t-PA and monoclonal antibodies. Once
a discovery has been proven, the manufacturers of these materials require larger
quantities of the same sera and other cell growth media that we provide in smaller
quantities to researchers. Industries involved in the commercial production
of genetically engineered products include the biotechnology pharmaceutical,
food processing and agricultural industries.
• Users who apply our technologies to enable or improve particular activities.
We provide tools that apply our technology to enable or improve activities in
particular markets, which we refer to as applied markets. The current focus
of our products for these markets is in the areas of: forensic analysis, which
is used to identify individuals based on their DNA; quality and safety testing,
such as testing required to measure food, beverage, or environmental quality
and pharmaceutical manufacturing quality and safety; production animal health
testing, which enables the detection of pathogens in livestock; and biosecurity,
which refers to products needed in response to the threat of biological terrorism
and other malicious, accidental, and natural biological dangers. The Applied
Biosystems branded forensic testing and human identification products and services
are innovative and market-leading tools that have been widely accepted by investigators
and laboratories in connection with, for example, criminal investigations, the
exoneration of individuals wrongly accused or convicted of crimes, identifying
victims of disasters, and paternity testing.
Competition
The markets for the products of each of our segments are competitive and are
characterized by the application of advanced technologies. New technologies
in life sciences could make our products and services obsolete unless we continue
to develop new and improved products and services and pursue new market opportunities.
Given the breadth of our product and service offerings, our competition comes
from a wide array of competitors with a high degree of technical proficiency,
ranging from specialized companies that have strengths in narrow segments of
the life science markets to larger manufacturers and distributors offering a
broad array of biotechnology products and services and have significant financial,
operational, research and development, and sales and marketing resources. These
and other companies may have developed or could in the future develop new technologies
that compete with our products or even render our products obsolete. Additionally,
there are numerous scientists making materials themselves instead of using kits.
We believe that a company’s competitive position in our markets is determined
by product function, product quality, speed of delivery, technical support,
price, breadth of product line, distribution capabilities, and timely product
development. Our customers are diverse and may place varying degrees of importance
on the competitive attributes listed above. While it is difficult to rank these
attributes for all our customers in the aggregate, we believe we are well positioned
to compete in each category.
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