Agilent Technologies, Inc. (Agilent) operates in the life sciences, diagnostics, and applied chemical markets, providing application focused solutions that include instruments, software, services, and consumables for the entire laboratory workflow.
The company's life sciences and applied markets business provides application-focused solutions that include instruments, consumables, and software that enable customers to identify, quantify, and analyze the physical and biological properties of sub...
Agilent Technologies, Inc. (Agilent) operates in the life sciences, diagnostics, and applied chemical markets, providing application focused solutions that include instruments, software, services, and consumables for the entire laboratory workflow.
The company's life sciences and applied markets business provides application-focused solutions that include instruments, consumables, and software that enable customers to identify, quantify, and analyze the physical and biological properties of substances and products, as well as enable customers in the clinical and life sciences research areas to interrogate samples at the molecular and cellular level. The company's consumables portfolio is designed to improve customer outcomes. The company’s diagnostics and genomics business is comprised of seven areas of activity providing active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) for oligo-based therapeutics, as well as solutions that include reagents, instruments, software, and consumables, which enable customers in the clinical and life sciences research areas to interrogate samples at the cellular and molecular level. The Agilent CrossLab business spans the entire lab with its extensive services portfolio, which is designed to improve customer outcomes. In addition, the company conducts centralized order fulfillment and supply chain operations for its businesses through the order fulfillment and supply chain organization (‘OFS’). OFS provides resources for manufacturing, engineering, and strategic sourcing to the company’s respective businesses. Each of the company’s businesses, together with OFS, is supported by its global infrastructure organization, which provides shared services in the areas of finance, information technology, legal, certain procurement services, workplace services, and human resources.
The company sells its products primarily through direct sales, but it also utilizes distributors, resellers, manufacturers' representatives, and electronic commerce. The company's primary research and development and manufacturing sites are in California, Colorado, Delaware, Massachusetts, Texas, and Vermont in the U.S. and in Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, and the United Kingdom.
Segments
The company operates through three segments: Life Sciences and Applied Markets Business, Diagnostics and Genomics Business, and Agilent CrossLab Business.
Life Sciences and Applied Markets Business
The company's life sciences and applied markets business provides application-focused solutions that include instruments, consumables, and software that enable customers to identify, quantify, and analyze the physical and biological properties of substances and products, as well as enable customers in the clinical and life sciences research areas to interrogate samples at the molecular and cellular level. Key product categories include: liquid chromatography (LC) systems and components; liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LCMS) systems; gas chromatography (GC) systems and components; gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GCMS) systems; inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) instruments; atomic absorption (AA) instruments; microwave plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (MP-AES) instruments; inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) instruments; raman spectroscopy; laboratory software for sample tracking; information management and analytics; laboratory automation and robotic systems; dissolution testing; vacuum pumps; and measurement technologies. The company’s consumables portfolio is designed to improve customer outcomes. Most of the portfolio is vendor neutral, meaning Agilent can serve and supply customers regardless of their instrument purchase choices. Solutions range from chemistries to supplies. Key product categories in consumables include GC and LC columns, sample preparation products, custom chemistries, and a large selection of laboratory instrument supplies.
Life Sciences and Applied Markets
The Pharmaceutical, Biopharmaceutical, Contract Research Organization (CRO), and Contract Manufacturing Organization (CMO) Market: This market consists of 'for-profit' companies which participate across the pharmaceutical value chain in the areas of therapeutic research, discovery and development, clinical trials, manufacturing, and quality assurance and quality control. One sub-segment of this market is core and emerging pharmaceutical companies (pharma). A second sub-segment includes biopharmaceutical companies (biopharma), contract research organizations (CROs), and contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs). Biopharma companies, and to a somewhat lesser extent, CROs and CMOs typically participate in specific points in the pharmaceutical industry value chain. Additionally, due to the relatively low drug efficacy within oncology, pharma companies are partnering with diagnostic companies to bring validated tests to the market with their new drugs.
The Academic and Government Market: This market consists primarily of ‘not-for-profit’ organizations and includes academic institutions, large government institutes, and privately funded organizations. The academic and government market plays an influential role in technology adoption and therapeutic developments for pharmaceutical and molecular diagnostics companies. After decades of investment in basic biomedical research by government funding bodies, the focus has widened to include translational research - multidisciplinary scientific efforts directed at accelerating therapy development.
The Chemicals and Advanced Materials Market: The company's products and solutions are used throughout the chemicals sector in the development, manufacturing, and quality control of commodity chemicals, specialty and agrochemicals, and fine chemicals. Chemical market customers use the company's products to determine chemical composition, perform impurity analysis, qualify raw materials, conduct materials characterization, and verify and ensure the environmental safety of operations and employees. The company's products are used to test for safety, quality, and compliance across the value chains of advanced materials, including semiconductors/electronics, batteries, specially engineered polymers and polymeric materials, minerals and metals, thin film and optics, consumer products, and packing materials - from the upstream raw materials, materials production, and final products to the end markets and recycling. The upstream petroleum exploration and refining markets use the company’s products to analyze natural gas, crude oil composition, perform intermediate material analysis, verify, and improve refining processes and ensure the overall quality of gasoline, fuels, lubricants, and other products.
The Environmental & Forensics Market: The company’s instruments, software, and workflow solutions are used by the environmental market for applications, such as laboratory and field analysis of regulated and unregulated chemical pollutants in air, water, soil, and solid waste. Environmental industry customers include all levels of government, the industrial and manufacturing sectors, engineering and consulting companies, commercial testing laboratories, public and private utilities, and colleges and universities. Drug testing and forensics laboratories use the company’s instruments, software, and workflow solutions for applications, such as analyzing evidence associated with crime, screening athletes for performance enhancing drugs, analyzing samples for recreational drugs, or detecting and identifying biological and chemical warfare agents. Some of the company’s instruments are used in mobile laboratories as well. Customers include local, state, federal, and international law enforcement agencies and health laboratories.
The Food Market: The company's instruments, software, and workflow solutions are used throughout the food production chain, including incoming inspection, new product development, quality control and assurance, and packaging. For example, the company's mass spectrometer portfolio is used to analyze contaminants and residual pesticides in food. There is also a significant food safety market involved in analyzing food for pathogen contamination, accurate verification of species type, and evidence of genetically modified content.
The Diagnostics and Clinical Market: The diagnostics and clinical market focus within the company's life sciences and applied markets business is to provide instruments, software, reagents, and consumables that enable customers performing life sciences, pharmaceutical and clinical research to interrogate biologically relevant metabolites, lipids, protein, and cellular systems to understand fundamental biological processes, as well as the underlying mechanisms of cancer and other disease initiation and progression. The company's mass spectrometry technologies are employed by researchers to identify and quantify individual or whole classes of metabolites, lipids, or proteins involved in basic cellular processes and elucidate those, which are quantitatively or qualitatively altered in disease states, as well as to identify those which may be useful as biomarkers for a disease.
Life Sciences and Applied Markets Products and Applications
The company's products fall into the following main areas of work: liquid chromatography, gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, spectroscopy, software and informatics, lab automation and robotics, vacuum technology, remarketed instruments, and chemistries and supplies.
The company's key products and applications include the following technologies:
Liquid Chromatography
A liquid chromatograph, high-performance liquid chromatograph (HPLC) or ultra-high performance liquid chromatograph (UHPLC) is used to separate molecules of a liquid mixture to determine the quantity and identity of the molecules present. The Agilent LC portfolio is largely modular in construction and can be configured as analytical and preparative systems. These systems can be stepwise upgraded to highly sophisticated, automated workflow solutions, such as method development, multi-method/walk-up, high-capacity/high-throughput or multi-dimensional LC and can be extended to application-based analyzers (e.g., for bio-molecular separations, chiral analysis, or size exclusion chromatography). As a leader in liquid chromatography, the company continues to expand its application space with new HPLC columns, new services, and ongoing instrument and software product enhancements.
Gas Chromatography
Agilent is the world's leading provider of gas chromatographs (GC), both laboratory and portable models. GCs are used to separate any gas, liquid, or solid that can be vaporized and then detect the molecules present to determine their identity and quantity. Agilent provides custom or standard analyzers configured for specific chemical analysis applications, such as detailed speciation of a complex hydrocarbon stream, calculation of gas calorific values in the field, or analysis of a new bio-fuel formulation. The company also offers related software, accessories, and consumable products for these and other similar instruments.
Mass Spectrometry
A mass spectrometer (MS) identifies and quantifies compounds based on their molecular mass and characteristic patterns of fragment ion masses that result when a molecule is broken apart. MS is an important tool in analyzing a broad spectrum of analytes, from small molecules, such as pesticides, to large molecules, such as intact proteins and other biological entities. Liquid chromatography (LC) and gas chromatography (GC) are commonly used to separate compounds and introduce them to the MS system. Agilent's LCMS portfolio includes instruments built around four main analyzer types - single quadrupole, triple quadrupole, time-of-flight (TOF), and quadrupole time-of-flight (QTOF). Agilent's GC/MS portfolio includes instruments built around three main analyzer types - single quadrupole, triple quadrupole, and quadrupole time-of-flight (QTOF). The company significantly expanded its mass spectrometry portfolio in recent years with a focus on improving performance, sensitivity, precision, robustness, ease of use, and onboard intelligence.
Spectroscopy
Spectroscopy is a technique for analyzing the individual chemical components of substances based on the absorption or emission of electromagnetic radiation of specific wavelengths of light. The company's spectroscopy instruments include AA spectrometers, microwave plasma-atomic emission spectrometers (MP-AES), ICP-OES, ICP-MS, fluorescence spectrophotometers, ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectrophotometers, Fourier Transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrometers, near-infrared (NIR) spectrometers, raman spectrometers, and sample automation products. The company also offers related software, accessories and consumable products for these and other similar instruments.
Software and Informatics
The company provides informatics and scientific software for instrument control, data acquisition, data analysis, secure storage of results, and laboratory information/workflow management. The company's software facilitates the compliant use of instruments in pharmaceutical quality assurance/quality control environments. With its OpenLab Laboratory Software Suite, Agilent has a scalable, open software platform that enables customers to capture, analyze, and share scientific data throughout the lab and across the enterprise.
Laboratory Automation and Robotics
The company offers a portfolio of unique sample preparation automated solutions that are key to a comprehensive suite of workflow solutions to its life science customers. This includes liquid handling, plate management, unique consumables, and scheduling software with solutions that range from standalone instrumentation to bench-top automation solutions. These solutions strengthen the company's offering of automated sample preparation across a broad range of applications, which are integrated with several of its analytical and next generation sequencing (NGS) platforms across the company.
Vacuum Technology
The company's vacuum technologies products are used to create, control, measure, and test vacuum environments in life science, industrial and scientific applications where ultra-clean, high-vacuum environments are needed. Vacuum technologies' customers are typically OEMs that manufacture equipment for these applications, or government and research organizations that require vacuum solutions in their facilities. Products include a wide range of high and ultra-high vacuum pumps (diffusion, turbo molecular and ion getter), primary vacuum pumps (rotary vane and dry scroll), vacuum instrumentation (vacuum control instruments, sensor gauges and meters) and vacuum components (valves, flanges and other mechanical hardware). These products also include helium mass spectrometry and helium-sensing leak detection instruments used to identify and measure leaks in hermetic or vacuum environments. In addition to product sales, the company offers a wide range of services, including an exchange and rebuild program, assistance with the design and integration of vacuum systems, applications support and training in basic and advanced vacuum technologies.
Chemistries and Supplies
The company offers a broad range of market specific consumables and supplies to complete customers' analytical workflows from sample preparation through separation and analysis to storage, with the support of its technology platforms. This includes sample preparation consumables, such as solid phase extraction (SPE) and filtration products, self-manufactured GC and LC columns, chemical standards, and instrument replacement parts. Consumable products also include scientific instrument parts and supplies, such as filters and fittings for GC systems; xenon lamps and cuvettes for UV-Vis-NIR, fluorescence, FT-IR and raman spectroscopy instruments; and graphite furnace tubes, hollow cathode lamps and specialized sample introduction glassware for the company's AA, ICP-OES, and ICP-MS products.
Remarketed Instruments
The company refurbishes and resells certified pre-owned instruments to value-oriented customers.
Seasonality
The life sciences and applied markets business is susceptible to seasonality in its orders and revenues primarily related to the U.S. and foreign government budgets, chemicals and advanced materials and environmental customers and large pharmaceutical company budgets. Historically, the result is that the company's first and fourth fiscal quarters (year ended October 31, 2024) tend to deliver the strongest profits for the life sciences and applied markets business.
Life Sciences and Applied Markets Customers
The company had approximately 52,000 customers for its life sciences and applied markets business in fiscal 2024. A significant number of its life sciences and applied markets customers are also customers of its Agilent CrossLab business.
Life Sciences and Applied Markets Sales, Marketing and Support
The life sciences and applied markets channels focus on the therapeutics and human disease research customer base (pharma, biopharma, CRO, CMO, and generics), clinical customer base (high complexity clinical testing labs), emerging life sciences opportunities in life science research institutes and applied markets (chemicals and advanced materials, food, environmental, and forensics). The company deploys a multi-channel approach, marketing products to its customers through direct sales, electronic commerce, resellers, manufacturers' representatives, and distributors. The company primarily uses direct sales to market its solutions to its pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, clinical, life science research, and applied market accounts. Sales agents supplement direct sales by providing broader geographic coverage and coverage of smaller accounts. The company's active reseller program augments its ability to provide more complete solutions to its customers. The company sells its consumable products through distributors, electronic commerce, and direct sales.
The company's products typically come with standard warranties, and extended warranties are available for additional cost.
Life Sciences and Applied Markets Manufacturing
The company's manufacturing supports its diverse product range and customer-centric focus. The company assembles highly configurable products to individual customer orders and make standard products to stock. It employs advanced manufacturing techniques and supply chain management systems to reduce costs and manufacturing cycle times. The company's manufacturing process then converts these designs into standard, as well as custom products for shipment to customers. It selectively uses third parties to provide some supply chain processes for manufacturing, warehousing, and logistics. Inside the U.S., the company has manufacturing facilities in California, Delaware, and Rhode Island. Outside of the U.S., the company has manufacturing facilities in China, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Singapore, and the United Kingdom. The company has FDA registered sites in California, Germany, and Singapore.
Life Sciences and Applied Markets Competition
The company's principal competitors in the life sciences and applied markets arena include Danaher Corporation; PerkinElmer Inc.; Shimadzu Corporation; Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.; and Waters Corporation.
Diagnostics and Genomics Business
The company’s diagnostics and genomics business include the cell analysis, advanced manufacturing partnerships and research and development, pathology, companion diagnostics, reagent partnership, genomics, and biomolecular analysis businesses.
The company’s diagnostics and genomics business consists of seven areas of activity providing active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) for oligo-based therapeutics, as well as solutions that include reagents, instruments, software, and consumables, which enable customers in the clinical and life sciences research areas to interrogate samples at the cellular and molecular level. First, the company’s cell analysis business includes instruments, reagents, software, and labware associated with unique live-cell analysis platforms in addition to mainstream flow cytometers, plate-readers, and plate washers/dispensers, which are used across a broad range of applications. Second, the company’s advanced manufacturing partnerships business is a contract and development manufacturing organization that provides services related to and the production of synthesized oligonucleotides under pharmaceutical good manufacturing practices (GMP) conditions for use as API in a class of drugs that utilize nucleic acid molecules for disease therapy. Together, the company’s BIOVECTRA and nucleic acid solutions businesses offer a broader range of contract and development manufacturing services to its customers. They also provide clinical-to-commercial scale production capabilities focused mainly on mRNA manufacturing. Third, its pathology solutions business is focused on product offerings for cancer diagnostics and anatomic pathology workflows. The broad portfolio of offerings includes immunohistochemistry (IHC), in situ hybridization (ISH), hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining and special staining. Fourth, the company also collaborate with a number of major pharmaceutical companies to develop new potential tissue pharmacodiagnostics, also known as companion diagnostics, which may be used to identify patients most likely to benefit from a specific targeted therapy. Fifth, the reagent partnership business provides clinical flow cytometry reagents for routine cancer diagnostics. This business also provides bulk antibodies as raw materials and associated assay development services to in vitro diagnostics (IVD) manufacturers, and biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Sixth, the company’s genomics business includes arrays and next generation sequencing (NGS). This business also includes solutions that enable clinical labs to identify DNA variants associated with genetic disease and help direct cancer therapy. Finally, the company’s biomolecular analysis business provides complete workflow solutions, including instruments, consumables, and software, for quality control analysis of nucleic acid samples. Samples are analyzed using quantitative and qualitative techniques to ensure accuracy in further genomics analysis techniques, including NGS, utilized in clinical and life science research applications.
Diagnostics and Genomics Market
The Diagnostics and Clinical Market: The diagnostics and clinical market focus within the diagnostics and genomics business is to provide instruments, software, reagents, and consumables that enable customers to perform clinical research and routine testing. The company’s automated pathology tissue staining platforms and solutions are used most heavily by the large labs located in hospitals, medical centers, and reference labs. The market focus is on mature economies primarily in North America, Western Europe, and Japan. The clinical market for genomics consists of high complexity clinical labs performing patient testing, including ‘for-profit’ reference laboratories, hospital labs, and molecular diagnostic companies. While some labs purchase IVD labeled testing kits, others often develop and validate their own molecular based tests. Analyte Specific Reagents (ASRs) are often used by these labs. Additionally, the company’s Seahorse, xCELLigence, Novocyte, and BioTek platform technologies are used both stand-alone and in conjunction with mass spectrometry to understand underlying cellular physiology and interactions in normal and diseased states, as well to help understand how new drugs and therapies alter the composition, function, or interaction of cells. In addition, the company’s XCELLigence and Novocyte technologies can be used to characterize and quantify immune cell response (for example cytotoxicity).
The Pharmaceutical, Biopharmaceutical, CRO & CMO Market: This market consists of ‘for-profit’ companies, which participate across the pharmaceutical value chain in the areas of therapeutic research, discovery and development, clinical trials, manufacturing, and quality assurance and quality control. The company’s sub-segment of this market is core and emerging pharmaceutical companies (pharma). A second sub-segment includes biopharmaceutical companies (biopharma), contract research organizations (CROs), and contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs). The company’s primary focus is on biopharma working with advanced therapeutic modalities (e.g., cell and gene therapies) where it provides a suite of research tools and companion diagnostic development services. Additionally, the company provides active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) contract development and manufacturing services for oligonucleotide-based therapeutic modalities. With the acquisition of BIOVECTRA, the company offer its pharmaceutical customers even more specialized manufacturing capabilities for targeted therapeutics, from sterile-fill finish to a single source for gene editing solutions.
Diagnostics and Genomics Products
The company's products fall into these main areas of work: pathology products, cell analysis, specific proteins and flow cytometry reagents, companion diagnostics, target enrichment, cytogenetic research solutions and microarrays, qPCR instrumentation and molecular biology reagents, advanced manufacturing partnerships, and automated electrophoresis and microfluidics solutions.
Pathology
This area consists of routine clinical solutions for tissue-based cancer diagnostics with solutions that comprise antibodies, reagents, instruments, and software targeting both primary and advanced cancer diagnostics. The company's CoverStainer and Artisan based product families target primary cancer diagnostics through hematoxylin and eosin staining, as well as special stains for additional insights and detection of potentially carcinogenic tissue. Dako Omnis and Autostainer based IHC solution and Instant Quality Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization (IQFISH) technologies provide advanced tumor typing through investigation of protein and gene expression. These products also include companion diagnostic tests that are used to help identify patients most likely to benefit from a specific targeted therapy.
Cell Analysis
The company’s cell analysis tools are used to study cell signaling pathways, general cell function and behavior through metabolic profile analysis, real-time cellular impedance measurements, and traditional cytometry techniques. Characterizing cellular behavior and function is an increasingly critical step in understanding normal behavior versus diseased states, advancements of those diseases, and response to therapies, providing researchers with a more targeted approach for drug discovery and ultimately more effective therapeutics. The company’s cell analysis portfolio includes cell analysis plate-based assays, flow cytometer, real-time cell analyzer, microplate reader, cell imaging system, and related consumables.
Bulk Antibodies and Flow Cytometry Reagents
In its Bulk Antibodies business, the company partners with IVD manufacturers, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical companies by offering antibodies as raw materials and a range of associated assay development services and solutions. The company operates in several areas of clinical relevance for the customers and address multiple technologies, such as turbidimetry, gel techniques, and chemiluminescence immunoassays. In the area of Flow Cytometry Reagents, the company provides reagents and kits directly to clinical laboratories working in routine cancer diagnostics, with particular focus on blood cancers.
Companion Diagnostics
In the company's Companion Diagnostics Business, the company partners with a number of major pharmaceutical companies to develop new potential pharmacodiagnostics, which may be used to identify patients most likely to benefit from a specific targeted therapy. The company supports pharmaceutical companies during each phase of their drug development process, from early pre-clinical through commercial launch activities. Companion diagnostics has a history of developing clinically relevant and validated tests, with accurate and effective scoring and interpretation guidelines, that enable successful regulatory approvals in its worldwide markets.
Target Enrichment
The company provides a target enrichment portfolio via its SureSelect products, which enables customers to select specific target regions of the genome for sequencing. Customers can customize its products for their regions of interest using the SureDesign software, or they can choose from a range of catalog products, including gene panels for specific applications and Exome designs, which allow analysis of the entire coding sequences of the genome. SureSelect provides a sample prep workflow that can be automated with the Agilent Bravo platform for scalability or leverages the Magnis NGS sample prep ecosystem of instruments and consumables for maximum ease-of-use. These products are used for mutation detection and genotyping. The company's solutions also enable clinical labs to identify DNA variants associated with genetic diseases and help direct cancer therapy.
Cytogenetic Research Solutions and Microarrays
The company provides microarrays for comparative genomic hybridization (CGH), mostly used by customers in cytogenetic laboratories. The arrays allow customers to detect genome-wide copy number alterations, with high levels of resolution (from entire chromosomal copy number changes to specific microdeletions or duplications). The arrays are offered in many formats allowing the customers to choose from different levels of resolution and number of samples per arrays. Arrays can also be customized using the SureDesign software. In addition to the microarrays, the company's solution includes reagents for sample processing, hardware for reading the microarrays, and software to help users view the data in a meaningful way. In addition to the CGH portfolio, the cytogenetics solution comprises a line of oligonucleotide probes for fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) called SureFISH. Additionally, the company provides a wide range of microarrays to the research market for different types of applications: gene expression, microRNA, methylation, splice variants, and chromatin immunoprecipitation applications. Arrays are offered as catalog designs or customizable designs, with no minimum order size and short delivery time, which differentiates the company from other vendors and enables researchers the maximum flexibility in their studies.
qPCR Instrumentation and Molecular Biology Reagents
Quantitative PCR (qPCR) or real time PCR is also a standard method used in genomic research facilities to measure the amount of a specific nucleic acid sequence within a sample. There are several applications for qPCR; among the most common are identifying the expression level of a specific gene or calculating the amount of a specific pathogen present in a sample. The company offers a complete portfolio of qPCR instruments, as well as specialty enzymes for amplifying difficult sample types. In addition to qPCR enzymes, the company offers a wide range of molecular biology reagents including tools for cloning and mutagenesis applications.
Advanced Manufacturing Partnerships
The company's advanced manufacturing partnerships business is a contract manufacturing and development services business with equipment and expertise focused on mid to large scale production of synthesized oligonucleotide APIs under pharmaceutical GMP conditions for a class of drugs that utilize oligonucleotide molecules for disease therapy. These drugs have advanced from single strand DNA molecules to complex, highly modified molecules, including antisense, aptamers, double-stranded RNA, and guide RNA. These advancements in the technology have greatly improved the efficacy of delivery and stability of the oligos in-vivo. The company's nucleic acid solutions business offers industry leading experience to efficiently advance its customers' oligo drug candidates from clinical trials to commercial scale volumes with a common goal of patient health and safety. With the acquisition of BIOVECTRA, the company offer its pharmaceutical customers even more specialized manufacturing capabilities for targeted therapeutics, from sterile-fill finish to a single source for gene editing solutions.
Automated Electrophoresis and Microfluidics
Automated electrophoresis is a separation technique for biomolecules, such as proteins, peptides, and nucleic acids (RNA and DNA) and is used to determine the identity of a molecule by either size or charge. It is widely used as a QC tool to check sample integrity prior to subsequent analysis. Prominent examples are nucleic acid preparation products in front of polymerase chain reaction, NGS and microarrays. More recently, quality control based on automated electrophoresis products has become essential throughout in-vitro transcription (IVT) mRNA workflows, including vaccine development and therapeutics.
Diagnostics and Genomics Customers
The company had approximately 14,000 customers for its diagnostics and genomics business in the year ended October 31, 2024 (fiscal 2024).
Diagnostics and Genomics Sales, Marketing and Support
The diagnostics and genomics channels focus on the therapeutics and human disease research customer base (pharma, biopharma, CRO, CMO, and generics), clinical customer base (pathology labs and high complexity clinical testing labs) and on emerging life sciences opportunities in life science research institutes. The company deploys a multi-channel approach, marketing products to its customers through direct sales, electronic commerce, resellers, manufacturers' representatives, and distributors. The company primarily uses direct sales to market its solutions to its pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, and clinical accounts. Sales agents supplement direct sales by providing broader geographic coverage and coverage of smaller accounts. The company's active reseller program augments its ability to provide more complete solutions to its customers. The company sells its consumable products through distributors, telesales, electronic commerce, and direct sales. The company utilizes telesales for more mature product lines, as well as for reorders of reagent products.
Diagnostics and Genomics Manufacturing
The company's manufacturing supports its diverse product range and customer-centric focus. The company assembles highly configurable products to individual customer orders and make standard products to stock. It employs advanced manufacturing techniques and supply chain management systems to reduce costs and manufacturing cycle times. The company selectively uses third parties to provide some supply chain processes for manufacturing, warehousing, and logistics. In the U.S., the company has manufacturing facilities in California, Colorado, Iowa, Massachusetts, Texas, and Vermont. Outside of the U.S., it has manufacturing facilities in Canada, China, Denmark, Germany, and Malaysia. The company's FDA registered sites include California, Colorado, Texas, Vermont, and Denmark.
Diagnostics and Genomics Competition
The company's principal competitors in the diagnostics and genomics arena include Abbott Laboratories; Affymetrix, Inc., a division of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.; Avecia, a division of Nitto Denko; Illumina, Inc.; Leica Biosystems, Inc., a division of Danaher Corporation; Revvity, Inc.; Roche Ventana Medical Systems, Inc., a member of the Roche Group; Sartorius; and Twist Bioscience Corporation.
Diagnostics and Genomics Government Regulation
Some of the products the diagnostics and genomics business sells are subject to regulatory approval by the FDA and other regulatory bodies throughout the world. These regulations govern a wide variety of product related activities, from quality management, design, and development to labeling, manufacturing, promotion, sales, and distribution. The company continually invests in its manufacturing infrastructure to gain and maintain certifications necessary for the level of clearance.
Agilent CrossLab Business
The Agilent CrossLab business spans the entire lab with its extensive services portfolio, which is designed to improve customer outcomes and represents a broad range of offerings designed to serve customer needs across end-markets regardless of instrument manufacturer. The services portfolio includes repairs, parts, maintenance, installations, training, compliance support, software as a service, asset management, consulting, and various other custom services to support the customers' laboratory operations. Custom services are tailored to meet the specific application needs of various industries and to keep instruments fully operational and compliant with the respective industry requirements.
Agilent CrossLab Markets
The Pharmaceutical, Biopharmaceutical, CRO, CDMO and CMO Market: The company's services support customers in this market that consists of for-profit companies which participate across the pharmaceutical value chain in the areas of therapeutic research, discovery and development, clinical trials, manufacturing and quality assurance, and quality control. One sub-segment of this market is core and emerging pharmaceutical companies (pharma). A second sub-segment includes biopharmaceutical companies (biopharma), contract research organizations (CROs), contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs) and contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs). Biopharma companies and, to a somewhat lesser extent, CROs, CDMOs, and CMOs typically participate in specific points in the pharmaceutical industry value chain. Additionally, due to the relatively low drug efficacy within oncology, pharma companies are partnering with diagnostic companies to bring validated tests to the market with their new drugs.
The Academic and Government Market: The company's services support customers in this market that consists primarily of not-for-profit organizations and includes academic institutions, large government institutes, and privately funded organizations. The academic and government market plays an influential role in technology adoption and therapeutic developments for pharmaceutical and molecular diagnostics companies.
The Chemicals and Advanced Materials Market: The company's services, software, and technical support are used throughout the chemicals sector in the development, manufacturing, and quality control of commodity chemicals, specialty and agrochemicals, and fine chemicals. Chemical market customers use the company's services, software, and technical support to maintain, optimize, and enable higher productivity and profitability for labs, and support quality control and compliance with environmental and safety regulations. Additionally, the company's services, software, and technical support are used to support the testing for safety, quality, and compliance across the value chains of advanced materials, including semiconductors, batteries, and specially engineered polymers and polymeric materials. The natural gas and petroleum exploration and refining markets use the company's services, software, and technical support to support quality control, environmental safety reviews, analysis of crude oil composition, and improve their refining processes and quality of products.
The Environmental and Forensics Market: The company's services support the environmental industry customers that perform laboratory and field analysis of chemical pollutants in air, water, soil, and solid waste. Environmental industry customers include all levels of government, the industrial and manufacturing sectors, engineering and consulting companies, commercial testing laboratories and colleges and universities. The company's services also support drug testing and forensics laboratories that are involved with analyzing evidence associated with crime, screening athletes for performance enhancing drugs, analyzing samples for recreational drugs, or detecting and identifying biological and chemical warfare agents. Customers include local, state, federal, and international law enforcement agencies, and commercial testing laboratories.
The Food Market: The company's services support the food production chain, including incoming inspection, new product development, quality control and assurance, and packaging. The company's services also support the food safety market in their work to analyze food for concerns ranging from pathogen contamination and genetic modification to species verification and others.
The Diagnostics and Clinical Market: The company's services support clinical diagnostic customers in pathology labs throughout the world.
Agilent CrossLab Services and Applications
Services and Support
The company offers a wide range of startup, operational, educational, and compliance support services for its measurement and data handling systems. The company's support services include maintenance, troubleshooting, repair, and training for all of its chemical and bioanalytical instrumentation hardware and software products. With advances in digital and virtual support technologies, many of those services can be offered remotely. Special service bundles have also been designed to meet the specific application needs of various industries. As customers continue to outsource laboratory operations and consolidate suppliers, the company's enterprise services consist of a broad portfolio of integrated laboratory management services, including instrument services, lab supply management, asset management, procurement, informatics, and scientific services. Advancements in the company's offering software and service solutions will help its customers more efficiently operate a more digitally connected smart lab that can derive value out of data analytics, artificial intelligence, and robotics.
Agilent CrossLab Customers
The company had approximately 50,000 Agilent CrossLab customers in fiscal 2024. A significant number of the company's Agilent CrossLab customers are also customers of its life sciences and applied markets business.
The vendor neutral portion of the portfolio allows the business to perform relatively independent from the company's instrument business.
Agilent CrossLab Sales, Marketing and Support
The company deploys a multi-channel approach, marketing services to its customers through direct sales, electronic commerce, resellers, manufacturers' representatives, and distributors. The company primarily uses direct sales to market its solutions to its large accounts. Sales agents supplement direct sales by providing broader geographic coverage and coverage of smaller accounts. The company's active reseller program augments its ability to provide more complete solutions to its customers. Some of its service contract sales are processed by its digital commerce infrastructure. All channels are supported by technical product and application specialists to meet its customers' specific requirements.
The company delivers its support services to customers in a variety of ways, including on-site assistance with repair or exchange of returned products, as well as a growing number of remote service delivery options. In addition to the traditional telephone support and on-site service, the company's teams remotely engage customers through various digital tools and omni-channel platforms. It also offers special industry-focused service bundles that are designed to meet the specific needs of pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical, advanced materials, environmental, and hydrocarbon processing customers to keep instruments fully operational and compliant with the respective industry requirements. The company's products typically come with standard warranties, and extended warranties are available for additional cost.
Agilent CrossLab Manufacturing
The company's direct service delivery organization is regionally based and operating in 28 countries.
Agilent CrossLab Competition
The company's principal competitors in the services arena include many of its competitors from the instrument business, such as Danaher Corporation; PerkinElmer Inc.; Shimadzu Corporation; Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.; and Waters Corporation.
Global Infrastructure Organization
The company provides support to its businesses through its global infrastructure organization. This support includes services in the areas of finance, tax, treasury, legal, real estate, insurance services, workplace services, human resources, information technology services, quality and regulatory services, corporate development, and other corporate infrastructure expenses. Generally, these organizations are managed from Santa Clara, California, with operations and services provided worldwide.
Agilent Order Fulfillment Organizations
The company's order fulfillment and supply chain organization (OFS) focuses on order fulfillment and supply chain operations in its businesses. OFS provides resources for manufacturing, engineering, and strategic sourcing to the company's respective businesses.
Regulatory Affairs
A number of the company's products and services are subject to regulation by the FDA, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and certain similar foreign regulatory agencies.
Global privacy laws, including the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Brazil's Lei Geral de Protecao de Dados, China's Personal Information Protection Law and Data Security Law, and the California Consumer Privacy Act, apply to the company's activities involving the processing of personal data, both in relation to its product and service offerings and the management of its workforce.
History
Agilent Technologies, Inc. was incorporated in Delaware in 1999.
