Businessweek

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. provides analytical instruments, equipment, reagents and consumables, software, and services for research, manufacturing, analysis, discovery, and diagnostics. Brands The company serves its customers through three premier brands, such as Thermo Scientific, Fisher Scientific, and Unity Lab Services. Thermo Scientific is the company’s technology brand, offering customers a range of analytical instruments, as well as laboratory equipment, software, services, consumables, and reagents. The company’s portfolio of products includes technologies for mass spectrometry, elemental analysis, molecular spectroscopy, sample preparation, informatics, chemical research and analysis, cell culture, bioprocess production, cellular, protein and molecular biology research, allergy testing, drugs-of-abuse testing, therapeutic drug monitoring testing, microbiology, anatomical pathology, and transplant diagnostics, as well as environmental monitoring and process control. Fisher Scientific is the company’s channels brand, offering customers a portfolio of laboratory equipment, chemicals, supplies, and services used in scientific research, healthcare, safety, and education markets. These products are offered through a network of direct sales professionals, catalogs, e-commerce capabilities, and supply-chain management services. The company also offers a range of biopharma services for clinical trials management and biospecimen storage. Unity Lab Services is the company’s services brand, offering a portfolio of services from enterprise level engagements to individual instruments and laboratory equipment, regardless of the original manufacturer. The company’s services are designed to help its customers drive decisions with data and information. Unity Lab Services offers a network of service and support personnel with expertise to provide its customers with solutions that improve their laboratory operations. In addition to the company’s three premier brands, it offers various specialty brands that cover a range of products. Business Segments and Products The company operates through three segments: Analytical Technologies; Specialty Diagnostics; and Laboratory Products and Services. ANALYTICAL TECHNOLOGIES This segment provides an offering of instruments, reagents, consumables, software, and services that are used for a range of applications in the laboratory, on the production line and in the field. These products are used by customers in all four of the company’s primary end markets, such as pharmaceutical and biotechnology; academic and government; industrial and applied; and healthcare and diagnostics. This segment includes four primary businesses – chromatography and mass spectrometry, chemical analysis, environmental and process instruments, and biosciences. Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry The company’s chromatography and mass spectrometry business provides analytical instrumentation for organic and inorganic sample analysis. These products are complemented by laboratory information management systems; chromatography data systems; database analytical tools; automation systems; and a range of consumables, such as a line of chromatography columns. Mass spectrometry is a technique for analyzing chemical compounds, individually or in complex mixtures, by forming charged ions that are then analyzed according to their mass-to-charge ratios. In addition to molecular information, each discrete chemical compound generates a pattern that provides structurally identifiable information. The company’s offering includes life sciences mass spectrometry systems; inorganic mass spectrometry systems; and elemental analysis instrumentation, as well as a range of sample preparation and separation products, including auto-samplers and multiplexing systems. Life sciences mass spectrometers include three major product lines, including triple quadrupole, ion trap, and hybrid systems. The company’s triple quadrupole systems provide quantitative analysis of chemicals in biological fluids, environmental samples and food matrices. They are also used by the pharmaceutical industry for targeted qu