A Perfect Fit
Specialty Diagnostics Expert Meets Automation Specialist
The acquisition of IBL International in July 2014 represents an important strategic step to support Tecan’s evolution into a solutions business with a higher share of recurring revenues. Originally established in Hamburg in 1983, IBL International has grown into a recognized business for unique and specialty assays renowned for their high quality.
The Company offers one of the largest specialty immunoassay portfolios in the industry and is moreover a pioneer and market leader in saliva diagnostics.
Ever since its foundation, IBL International has been consistently growing. Highly successful with direct sales, the Company’s reach was however restricted only to a small number of countries. With little infrastructure available to the Company and limited resources to expand into new markets, IBL started looking for a competent partner. With Tecan’s global presence and access to clinical diagnostics customers, IBL International can now grow faster than it could as a stand-alone Company. The increasing need for an integrated instrument and reagent offering in the growing high mix/low volume market segment represents significant opportunities for the combined entity.
With IBL International as a vital part of its Life Sciences Business, Tecan can now expand into this growing market for specialty diagnostics solutions. This subsegment is not competing with large in-vitro diagnostics companies, Tecan’s typical Partnering Business customers, as they rather concentrate on a smaller number of routine tests processed in high volumes on large systems based around individual samples (low mix/high volume).
End-users will greatly benefit from less complex, user-friendly automation in specialty diagnostics. The integration of IBL International allows Tecan to leverage its automation expertise and leading position within the immunoassay market for open instrumentation platforms by adapting IBL International’s range of immunoassays for specialty diagnostics to Tecan platforms. A win-win situation not only for the two companies, but also for patients around the globe relying on swift and safe diagnostics.
Simplifying the Development of New Drugs
The discovery of promising active ingredients for new medications is the first step in a long development process until they can be used to potentially cure diseases. Millions of chemical and biological substances are tested by reasearchers to assess their potential, test for possible drug interactions with other substances as well as the optimal dosage. Fully automated laboratory workflow solutions with state-of-the-art technologies engineered by Tecan make the hunt for new active substances considerably more efficient. The FluentTM Laboratory Automation Solution is the latest example of Tecan’s contribution to drug discovery.
David Martyr, CEO, on the acquisition of IBL International
“The addition of IBL International – a market leader in micro-plate based immunoassays – to the Tecan Group has generated a lot of excitement. This acquisition is an important step for Tecan, and is an excellent fit with our long-term strategic aims of helping to simplify laboratory workflows by offering fully integrated solutions – including hardware, software, and reagents.”
Impeccable Is the Standard
Quality and innovation are attributes that Tecan always seeks to be on par with. Tecan’s innovations reduce the error rate in complex applications by replacing manual labor with automated and monitored processes. A new instrument for fully automated blood typing is the ORTHO VISION™ Analyzer for Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics.
