Business in Brief
A roundup of this month’s business news, from virtual product launches to industry buyouts adjusted for the COVID-19 era
Nick Roesen, COO of NAC.
- The Native Antigen Company (NAC), one of the first companies globally to provide antigens for SARS-CoV-2, has been acquired by LGC. NAC will continue to support efforts to fight COVID-19, with the move strengthening LGC’s current offering to the molecular diagnostics sector (1).
- Back in March, Thermo Fisher agreed to buy out Qiagen after months of negotiations. But that was when there were fewer than 100,000 COVID-19 cases globally. Now, the demand for Qiagen’s diagnostic technologies has skyrocketed, requiring Thermo Fisher to increase their offer. A final deal is expected in early 2021 (2).
- On its 50th anniversary in July 2020, SCIEX launched a virtual product experience enabling customers to explore some of its new software and instruments. This included the next installment of its flagship mass spectrometer, the SCIEX Triple Quad™ 7500 LC-MS/MS System – QTRAP® Ready (3).
- trinamiX, a subsidiary of BASF, has developed a handheld NIR spectrometer that quickly determines the composition of different plastics, aiding recycling processes. The data analysis can be performed anywhere via wireless cloud uploading and is linked to a mobile app for usability (4).
- Waters has announced a new fragmentation technique and imaging option for its high-resolution mass spectrometers, enhancing researchers’ ability to probe peptides, proteins, and protein complexes in biomedical and pharmaceutical research (5).
- LGC (2020). Available at: https://bit.ly/2CPDdEe.
- ThermoFisher (2020). Available at: https://bit.ly/2CpQnbn.
- SCIEX (2020). Available at: https://bit.ly/2E5hEAd.
- BASF (2020). Available at: https://on.basf.com/2ZNNZ7a.
- Waters (2020). Available at: https://bwnews.pr/2E5lYiV.
By the time I finished my degree in Microbiology I had come to one conclusion – I did not want to work in a lab. Instead, I decided to move to the south of Spain to teach English. After two brilliant years, I realized that I missed science, and what I really enjoyed was communicating scientific ideas – whether that be to four-year-olds or mature professionals. On returning to England I landed a role in science writing and found it combined my passions perfectly. Now at Texere, I get to hone these skills every day by writing about the latest research in an exciting, creative way.
