Agilent 'outpacing the market' with double-digit biopharma growth
In 2013, Agilent announced plans to separate its biopharma service offerings from its electric measurement group to devote more “resources to the higher-growth LDA [life sciences, diagnostics and applied markets] business,” and in a quarterly financial conference call last week the firm said the strategy is paying off.
“Although we don't report externally the absolute results in the biopharma segment of the pharma market, we're really pleased with how this business is performing,” CEO Mike McMullen told investors.
“This is a major strategic initiative that we launched probably about two and a half years ago to really go after the biopharma market segment in a much different manner. We've been bringing to market a number of new novel solutions. We've changed our go-to market strategy and it's paying off.”
He added for the third quarter of fiscal year 2017, biopharma – which represents 30% of the firm’s total revenue – saw double digits growth year-on-year.
While this reporting quarter has seen muted growth among the major bioprocessing players, McMullen said Agilent bucked the trend by “outpacing the overall market” and producing double-digit growth in its biopharma division.
President of Agilent’s Life Sciences and Applied Markets Group Patrick Kaltenbach added the increased biopharma demand for Agilent’s technologies was “on the R&D side as well as manufacturing,” and driven by increased development of monoclonal antibodies and biosimilars.
“I think we’re addressing the needs of this market space better and better. And this will drive for us more moving forward, especially, I think, [as] the biosimilars is a market space that will continue to grow.”
For the third quarter, the Life Sciences and Applied Markets Group - of which biopharma contributes 30% of total revenues - reported a net income of $531m, up 5.4% year-on-year.
