Laboratory Consumables a Major Area of Industry Acquisition Activity

While M&A and IPO activity tends to ebb and flow in the laboratory industry, the current trend seems to be on the upswing. Just over the past few weeks, there seems to be a hotbed of activity particularly in the area of laboratory consumables. Most notably, near the end of July, PerkinElmer announced a $5.25 billion deal – the largest in the company’s history – to acquire BioLegend, a provider of antibodies and reagents. But several other recent deals also focus on the consumables space. PacBio announced the acquisition of Circulomics. which makes prep kits for high molecular weight DNA. Abcam acquired one of its suppliers, BioVision, which makes assay kits, antibodies and other life science molecules. Sartorius acquired a majority stake of Cellgenix, which provides cell culture media and growth factors. These and other activities in the laboratory business are regularly reported on in SDi’s IBO newsletter.

Suffice it to say, laboratory consumables form a very active part of the overall laboratory market and one to which we have increasingly turned our attention. Earlier this month, SDi published the second iteration of our major new undertaking to address the market for laboratory consumables. The new SDI Global Laboratory Consumables 2021 is not merely an update of last year’s report on consumables. This year’s version also includes additional products not covered in the earlier report, as we expand our coverage of this important market. Among the new presentations are an entirely new chapter on sample handling products, such as filtration, glassware and plasticware, as well as additional new sections to the previous market estimates regarding chromatography consumables, life science consumables, and cell culture products.

This report should be considered an excellent complement to SDi’s flagship Global Assessment Report covering the market for laboratory instruments along with associated aftermarket and service revenues. While there is some overlap in the two reports, such as with chromatography columns and other supplies that are included in the Global Assessment Report, many of the other consumable products, such as those in cell culture, are not used with a particular instrument, so these market data In the Global Laboratory Consumables report are entirely new.

One final note, SDi will be offering a free webinar covering some of the high-level results of this report on September 22nd. You may register for the event here.