Growth in India

FARMINGHAM, Mass.—Seeking a greater presence in India, ABSCIEX is increasing its investment in the country with the acquisition of themass spectrometry business of Labindia Instruments Pvt. Ltd.

Financial terms of the acquisition were not released.

Umesh Pawa, managing director of AB SCIEX India, says theacquisition of Labindia's mass spectrometry business enables AB SCIEX to godirectly to mass spectrometry users in India.

"This signals a change for AB SCIEX from an indirect salesmodel—through a long-standing distribution relationship with Labindia—to directsales," Pawa says. "This transaction combines the local expertise and contactsof Labindia's mass spectrometry team with AB SCIEX's global resources,scientific expertise and product development leadership. It is a positive stepforward for serving India's scientific community."

The transaction will combine "the local expertise andrelationships of Labindia's mass spectrometry team with AB SCIEX's globalresources, scientific expertise and product development leadership to workclosely and collaboratively with customers," Labindia noted in a statement. "Webelieve this is a positive step forward for mass spectrometry customers inIndia."

Pawa notes that Labindia's mass spectrometry business hasbeen serving Indian users of AB SCIEX's instrumentation for the past 15 years.The transition of this business, including customer relationships, personneland application support facilities, to AB SCIEX is a direct result of thesuccessful track record that AB SCIEX and Labindia have had as partners inIndia. AB SCIEX's expansion of its commercial operations in India is expectedto create new opportunities for customer interactions, collaborations andinnovation.

Pawa explains the acquisition is part of AB SCIEX's growthstrategy to expand its presence in India, which is one of the world'sfastest-growing emerging markets for science.

"This transaction is a natural culmination of a verysuccessful and productive relationship between AB SCIEX and Labindia over morethan a decade," Pawa says. "We believe this is the next logical and mostpositive step for India's scientific community to have the manufacturer moreclosely collaborating with India's mass spectrometry users to meet theirevolving needs going forward. We foresee opportunities for AB SCIEX and thenewly acquired mass spectrometry team to work more closely and collaborativelywith customers and open up new streams of dialogue. Customers will also haveeasier access to AB SCIEX's world-class scientific expertise and globalresources."

AB SCIEX has a more than 20-year history of innovation andis among the market leaders in mass spectrometry, which is a workhorseanalytical technique for a wide variety of scientific applications, includingbiomedical research, drug discovery and development, food contaminationtesting, environmental analysis, forensic toxicology and vitamin D analysis,among other emerging applications in clinical research.

The company has been involved in applying the power of massspectrometry to assist in efforts to protect the health and safety of India'svast population. AB SCIEX announced last year, for instance, that through itsdistribution relationship with Labindia, it supplied a food-safety testingsolution to six major laboratories under the pesticides monitoring networkproject by India's government.

"This was part of a project with the Ministry of Agricultureto help reinforce new food-safety standards through better monitoring forcontamination," Pawa says.

AB SCIEX and Labindia are working closely to ensure a smoothtransition of Labindia's former mass spectrometry-focused personnel, who willprovide uninterrupted service and support during this changeover and continueto be the day-to-day contacts for Indian mass spectrometry customers. As partof AB SCIEX, the team will continue to work from their current locations inIndia.

Pawa notes that the personnel in Labindia's massspectrometry division who have transitioned successfully into AB SCIEX totalabout 100 people.

"Since Labindia's mass spectrometry division has been ABSCIEX's representation in India, there is no overlap with current AB SCIEXassociates," Pawa adds. "All of the people from Labindia's mass spectrometrydivision have joined AB SCIEX."

Pawa concludes that AB SCIEX "will measure success by growthin the market in India."

Based in New Delhi, Labindia markets and manufacturesanalytical instruments for and provides services to the pharmaceutical, biotechand life sciences industries, as well as the chemical and petrochemicalindustries. Last year, the company sold certain assets to Life Technologies.

The agreement with AB SCIEX was not the only one forLabindia, which also sold its microscopy and histopathology business to LeicaMicrosystems.

"Leica Microsystems' expansion of its commercial operationsin India creates extended opportunities for interaction, collaboration andinnovation to benefit all of our customers in the life sciences, industriallaboratories and hospitals for both diagnostics and surgery," explains ArndKaldowski, president of Leica Microsystems. "This acquisition will enablecloser contact with our customers so that we can better support them in theirday-to-day work."