07.20.22
Rank: #13 (Last year: #15)
$9.84 Billion ($29.45B total)
Prior Fiscal: $7.4 Billion
Percentage Change: +33%
R&D Expenditure: $1.74B
Best FY21 Quarter: Q4 $2.88B
Latest Quarter: Q1 $2.64B
No. of Employees: 80,000 (total)
Global Headquarters: Washington, D.C.
KEY EXECUTIVES:
Steven M. Rales, Board Chairman
Rainer M. Blair, President and CEO
Matthew R. McGrew, Exec. VP and CFO
Jose-Carlos Guitierrez-Ramos, SVP and Chief Science Officer
Julie Sawyer Montgomery, President, Beckman Coulter Diagnostics
Christophe Duret, President, HemoCue
Gustavo Perez-Fernandez, President, Leica Biosystems
Mike Feld, President, Mammotome
Ultimate Gray+Illuminating.
An unlikely pairing, this union of dark and light, of drab and vivid.
Yet somehow, it works. The flat, neutral Ultimate Gray—think concrete slab—is a calming counterpart to Illuminating’s vitality and brilliance (think sunshine).
“The contrast between Ultimate Gray and Illuminating is stark,” Jacob Olesen, founder of Color Meanings, a website about color symbolism and design, wrote in an undated post. “While Ultimate Gray offers a reassuring, calm presence, Illuminating is bursting with energy. This cheerful yellow also has some power to it. It’s reminiscent of sunlight...”
And sunlight is associated with warmth, joy, positivity, and hope. That explains—at least partially—the decision to name Illuminating and Ultimate Gray as the Pantone Color of the Year 2021.
Last year’s complementary tones clearly were a metaphorical choice, intended to convey a message of resilience and optimism after a particularly challenging 2020. “The union of an enduring Ultimate Gray with the vibrant yellow Illuminating expresses a message of positivity supported by fortitude,” Pantone Color Institute Executive Director Leatrice Eiseman said in a December 2020 news release. “Practical and rock solid but at the same time warming and optimistic, this is a color combination that gives us resilience and hope.”
Indeed, the pairing of Ultimate Gray and Illuminating served as a beacon of hope last year to a world grown weary of a (seemingly) interminable pandemic, racial unrest, climate change-fueled natural disasters, and political extremism. Their complementary nature, in fact, exemplified the importance of human connection in overcoming great challenges.
“It became apparent there was never going to be one color that could express everything that needed to be expressed—that it was, instead, critical to have two independent colors that could come together,” Pantone Color Institute Vice President Laurie Pressman explained. “Not only to subliminally convey the message that we can’t do this alone—that we all need each other—but because it is the combination of the qualities of these colors that tells the story.”
One of many stories, actually.
Ultimate Gray and Illuminating also tell a tale of resilience, unity, and fortitude at Pantone’s parent company, Danaher Corporation. Through its various subsidiaries, the multinational firm became a pillar of endurance, strength, and sanguinity last year as SARS-CoV-2 continued its deadly rampage, with Beckman Coulter Diagnostics and Cepheid providing a solid base of assays and Cytiva and Pall Corporation supporting vaccine development.
Beckman Coulter’s two new COVID-19 antigen tests premiered last spring. Its Access SARS-CoV-2 Antigen assay can deliver results in 30 minutes and runs on the company’s immunoassay analyzers, including the DxI 800, a high-throughput analyzer capable of processing 200 samples an hour.
The Access SARS-CoV-2 Antigen assay has proven 93% positive percent agreement within seven days post-symptom onset and 100% negative percent agreement. The assay also has a 33 TCID50/mL detection limit, which is two to 200 times lower, and more sensitive than the reported detection limits for most available point-of-care antigen tests.
Beckman Coulter priced the assay at $4 for all healthcare providers to enable frequent testing. Access SARS-CoV-2 Antigen test samples are collected with a nasopharyngeal or nasal swab and can be store at room temperature for up to 24 hours and 48 hours refrigerated (2 degrees to 8 degrees Celsius) with one freeze/thaw cycle.
On the heels of the Access test’s general availability was FDA Emergency Use Authorization of Beckman Coulter’s semi-quantitative Access SARS-CoV-2 IgG II antibody assay. That test measures COVID-19 antibody levels, measuring IgG antibodies directed to the receptor-binding domain of the coronavirus’s spike protein. Offered in random access mode, the test has a confirmed 98.9% positive percent agreement (sensitivity) and 100% negative percent agreement (specificity) at 15 or more days upon symptom onset.
“Antibody assays like our Acess SARS-CoV-2 IgG II test can help researchers quantitatively determine the levels of IgG antibodies and enable them to access the relative changes of an individual’s immune response to the virus over time,” Shamiram R. Feinglass, M.D., Beckman Coulter’s chief medical officer, said. “This information is essential because it helps continually inform therapeutics and vaccine development. Effective and high-quality diagnostic solutions are essential in the fight against COVID-19.”
Cepheid contributed to the global fight by developing tests for Omicron and future variants, as well as assays for differentiating/detecting SARS-CoV-2, flu, and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus).
The latter tests augmented Cepheid’s Xpert Xpress portfolio. Canadian regulators sanctioned Xpert’s four-in-one SARS-CoV -2/Flu/RSV rapid molecular assay in mid-January last year as the flu season reached its peak. The test can distinguish between the viruses causing COVID-19, Flu A, Flu B, and RSV infections from a single patient blood sample. Designed for laboratory and point-of-care use, the assay and delivers results in about 36 minutes.
Cepheid developed an expanded combination COVID-19 test that received both FDA emergency use authorization and CE Mark approval last fall. Besides deciphering between the four respiratory illnesses, the Xpert Xpress SARS-CoV-2/Flu/RSV plus adds a third gene target for COVID-19 detection to “meet the challenge of future viral mutations.” The test can be used on any Cepheid GeneXpert system and provides results in roughly 36 minutes.
Cepheid’s Xpert testing line has proven resilient to the Omicron variant, based on computer-based analysis, according to the company. “RNA viruses are well known to naturally undergo genetic variation, and thus are well-poised to emerge in the face of new selective pressures—it is how they thrive,” David Persing, M.D., Ph.D., executive vice president and chief science officer at Cepheid, said last December. “From the beginning of the pandemic, we have been keenly focused on staying ahead of SARS-CoV-2 genetic drift and have designed our tests in anticipation of variants like Omicron and potential future variants.”
That foresight helped boost demand for Cepheid’s PCR respiratory test and its four-in-one combination assays late last year as Omicron become the dominant coronavirus variant and the flu began its seasonal march through the Northern Hemisphere.
“At Cepheid, we have increased our manufacturing capacity for respiratory tests—including our four-in-one combination test for COVID-19, Flu A, Flu B, and RSV—by 10-fold over the last two years,” Danaher President and CEO Rainer M. Blair said in the company’s 2021 annual report. “Near-term, these investments have been critical to meet customer demand and we believe they are driving meaningful market share gains.”
They’re certainly driving meaningful sales gains. Diagnostic segment proceeds skyrocketed 33% to $9.84 billion in FY21, nearly matching Danaher’s overall 32.2% revenue rise (to $29.45 billion). Diagnostic operating profit mushroomed 50.4% to $2.31 billion—significantly less than Life Sciences’ two-fold gain in operating profit but far more than the 7.6% increase recorded by Environmental & Applied Solutions.
Diagnostics’ stellar showing last year can primarily be attributed to sales gains in each of its three product franchises, higher SARS-CoV-2 molecular test volume, and demand for non-coronavirus products, such as Cepheid’s advanced, extended-coverage HIV tests, Xpert HIV-1 Viral Load XC and Xpert HIV-1 Qual XC, both of which received CE-IVD clearance last summer. Xpert HIV-1 Viral Load XC analyzes the viral load levels used for monitoring anti-retroviral treatment efficiency; it adds a second target for identifying HIV-1, offering expanded strain coverage to boost performance and alleviate the risk of false-negative results due to gene mutations or deletions.
Xpert HIV-1 Qual XC adds a second target as well for quicker HIV-1 infection detection—up to seven to 10 days before seroconversion. The Qual XC assay can be used in both laboratory and near-patient testing environments.
Increased demand for chemistry and immunoassay products helped boost sales in Diagnostics’ clinical lab business, though new innovations likely contributed too. Beckman Coulter debuted a tabletop analyzer and workflow automated solution last winter and spring, expanding the company’s solutions for small and medium-sized laboratories.
The DxH 560 AL analyzer features auto-loading, closed-tube aspiration, and walkaway capabilities. Designed to reduce the time and resource constraints faced by small to mid-size labs, the analyzer uses a 17µL sample, one of the smallest sample volumes on the market; users can continually load up to 50 samples, and results are delivered in 60 seconds or less.
The DxH 560 AL provides privacy and security features including customizable user login, paperless data management, and fully traceable automated timeoouts that guard patient electronic personal health data.
The DxA 5000 Fit is a workflow automation solution for medium-sized labs running less than 5,000 tests daily. Its workflow automation solution can reduce up to 80% of manual steps through pre-analytical, analytical, and post-analytical automation. The DxA 5000 features intelligent routing and calculated route planning for rapid and consistent turnaround time, with statistics prioritized to deliver results faster, and a flexible design that can be adapted to meet a mid-volume lab’s space and infrastructure constraints.
Robust demand for blood gas consumables and immunoassay products lifted acute care diagnostic sales in 2021, though the hike partially was offset by lower instrument revenue (not surprising, considering the pandemic-induced demand for blood gas instruments in 2020).
Pathology business sales rose amid higher demand for core histology, advanced staining, and pathology imaging products. Leica Biosystems and Mammotome both introduced new solutions last year: Leica worked with Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS to develop a DICOM implementation solution for its next-generation Aperio GT 450 DX scanner. The product now produces DICOM Whole Slide Images natively, thus meeting industry standards to enable compatibility with PACS and tighter integration of digital pathology into the diagnostic pathway.
Mammotome, meanwhile, unveiled new flexible HydroMARK Breast Biopsy Site Marker applicators last April. Intended to simplify and improve user intuitiveness, the new applicator line expands compatibility with vacuum-assisted breast biopsy systems, including the Mammotome Revolve dual Vacuum-Assisted Breast Biopsy System. The hydrogel technology hydrates, reaching more than 90% water in less than 24 hours, and the new flexible applicator design allows for easier deployment in upright biopsies.
$9.84 Billion ($29.45B total)
Prior Fiscal: $7.4 Billion
Percentage Change: +33%
R&D Expenditure: $1.74B
Best FY21 Quarter: Q4 $2.88B
Latest Quarter: Q1 $2.64B
No. of Employees: 80,000 (total)
Global Headquarters: Washington, D.C.
KEY EXECUTIVES:
Steven M. Rales, Board Chairman
Rainer M. Blair, President and CEO
Matthew R. McGrew, Exec. VP and CFO
Jose-Carlos Guitierrez-Ramos, SVP and Chief Science Officer
Julie Sawyer Montgomery, President, Beckman Coulter Diagnostics
Christophe Duret, President, HemoCue
Gustavo Perez-Fernandez, President, Leica Biosystems
Mike Feld, President, Mammotome
Ultimate Gray+Illuminating.
An unlikely pairing, this union of dark and light, of drab and vivid.
Yet somehow, it works. The flat, neutral Ultimate Gray—think concrete slab—is a calming counterpart to Illuminating’s vitality and brilliance (think sunshine).
“The contrast between Ultimate Gray and Illuminating is stark,” Jacob Olesen, founder of Color Meanings, a website about color symbolism and design, wrote in an undated post. “While Ultimate Gray offers a reassuring, calm presence, Illuminating is bursting with energy. This cheerful yellow also has some power to it. It’s reminiscent of sunlight...”
And sunlight is associated with warmth, joy, positivity, and hope. That explains—at least partially—the decision to name Illuminating and Ultimate Gray as the Pantone Color of the Year 2021.
Last year’s complementary tones clearly were a metaphorical choice, intended to convey a message of resilience and optimism after a particularly challenging 2020. “The union of an enduring Ultimate Gray with the vibrant yellow Illuminating expresses a message of positivity supported by fortitude,” Pantone Color Institute Executive Director Leatrice Eiseman said in a December 2020 news release. “Practical and rock solid but at the same time warming and optimistic, this is a color combination that gives us resilience and hope.”
Indeed, the pairing of Ultimate Gray and Illuminating served as a beacon of hope last year to a world grown weary of a (seemingly) interminable pandemic, racial unrest, climate change-fueled natural disasters, and political extremism. Their complementary nature, in fact, exemplified the importance of human connection in overcoming great challenges.
“It became apparent there was never going to be one color that could express everything that needed to be expressed—that it was, instead, critical to have two independent colors that could come together,” Pantone Color Institute Vice President Laurie Pressman explained. “Not only to subliminally convey the message that we can’t do this alone—that we all need each other—but because it is the combination of the qualities of these colors that tells the story.”
One of many stories, actually.
Ultimate Gray and Illuminating also tell a tale of resilience, unity, and fortitude at Pantone’s parent company, Danaher Corporation. Through its various subsidiaries, the multinational firm became a pillar of endurance, strength, and sanguinity last year as SARS-CoV-2 continued its deadly rampage, with Beckman Coulter Diagnostics and Cepheid providing a solid base of assays and Cytiva and Pall Corporation supporting vaccine development.
Beckman Coulter’s two new COVID-19 antigen tests premiered last spring. Its Access SARS-CoV-2 Antigen assay can deliver results in 30 minutes and runs on the company’s immunoassay analyzers, including the DxI 800, a high-throughput analyzer capable of processing 200 samples an hour.
The Access SARS-CoV-2 Antigen assay has proven 93% positive percent agreement within seven days post-symptom onset and 100% negative percent agreement. The assay also has a 33 TCID50/mL detection limit, which is two to 200 times lower, and more sensitive than the reported detection limits for most available point-of-care antigen tests.
Beckman Coulter priced the assay at $4 for all healthcare providers to enable frequent testing. Access SARS-CoV-2 Antigen test samples are collected with a nasopharyngeal or nasal swab and can be store at room temperature for up to 24 hours and 48 hours refrigerated (2 degrees to 8 degrees Celsius) with one freeze/thaw cycle.
On the heels of the Access test’s general availability was FDA Emergency Use Authorization of Beckman Coulter’s semi-quantitative Access SARS-CoV-2 IgG II antibody assay. That test measures COVID-19 antibody levels, measuring IgG antibodies directed to the receptor-binding domain of the coronavirus’s spike protein. Offered in random access mode, the test has a confirmed 98.9% positive percent agreement (sensitivity) and 100% negative percent agreement (specificity) at 15 or more days upon symptom onset.
“Antibody assays like our Acess SARS-CoV-2 IgG II test can help researchers quantitatively determine the levels of IgG antibodies and enable them to access the relative changes of an individual’s immune response to the virus over time,” Shamiram R. Feinglass, M.D., Beckman Coulter’s chief medical officer, said. “This information is essential because it helps continually inform therapeutics and vaccine development. Effective and high-quality diagnostic solutions are essential in the fight against COVID-19.”
Cepheid contributed to the global fight by developing tests for Omicron and future variants, as well as assays for differentiating/detecting SARS-CoV-2, flu, and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus).
The latter tests augmented Cepheid’s Xpert Xpress portfolio. Canadian regulators sanctioned Xpert’s four-in-one SARS-CoV -2/Flu/RSV rapid molecular assay in mid-January last year as the flu season reached its peak. The test can distinguish between the viruses causing COVID-19, Flu A, Flu B, and RSV infections from a single patient blood sample. Designed for laboratory and point-of-care use, the assay and delivers results in about 36 minutes.
Cepheid developed an expanded combination COVID-19 test that received both FDA emergency use authorization and CE Mark approval last fall. Besides deciphering between the four respiratory illnesses, the Xpert Xpress SARS-CoV-2/Flu/RSV plus adds a third gene target for COVID-19 detection to “meet the challenge of future viral mutations.” The test can be used on any Cepheid GeneXpert system and provides results in roughly 36 minutes.
Cepheid’s Xpert testing line has proven resilient to the Omicron variant, based on computer-based analysis, according to the company. “RNA viruses are well known to naturally undergo genetic variation, and thus are well-poised to emerge in the face of new selective pressures—it is how they thrive,” David Persing, M.D., Ph.D., executive vice president and chief science officer at Cepheid, said last December. “From the beginning of the pandemic, we have been keenly focused on staying ahead of SARS-CoV-2 genetic drift and have designed our tests in anticipation of variants like Omicron and potential future variants.”
That foresight helped boost demand for Cepheid’s PCR respiratory test and its four-in-one combination assays late last year as Omicron become the dominant coronavirus variant and the flu began its seasonal march through the Northern Hemisphere.
“At Cepheid, we have increased our manufacturing capacity for respiratory tests—including our four-in-one combination test for COVID-19, Flu A, Flu B, and RSV—by 10-fold over the last two years,” Danaher President and CEO Rainer M. Blair said in the company’s 2021 annual report. “Near-term, these investments have been critical to meet customer demand and we believe they are driving meaningful market share gains.”
They’re certainly driving meaningful sales gains. Diagnostic segment proceeds skyrocketed 33% to $9.84 billion in FY21, nearly matching Danaher’s overall 32.2% revenue rise (to $29.45 billion). Diagnostic operating profit mushroomed 50.4% to $2.31 billion—significantly less than Life Sciences’ two-fold gain in operating profit but far more than the 7.6% increase recorded by Environmental & Applied Solutions.
Diagnostics’ stellar showing last year can primarily be attributed to sales gains in each of its three product franchises, higher SARS-CoV-2 molecular test volume, and demand for non-coronavirus products, such as Cepheid’s advanced, extended-coverage HIV tests, Xpert HIV-1 Viral Load XC and Xpert HIV-1 Qual XC, both of which received CE-IVD clearance last summer. Xpert HIV-1 Viral Load XC analyzes the viral load levels used for monitoring anti-retroviral treatment efficiency; it adds a second target for identifying HIV-1, offering expanded strain coverage to boost performance and alleviate the risk of false-negative results due to gene mutations or deletions.
Xpert HIV-1 Qual XC adds a second target as well for quicker HIV-1 infection detection—up to seven to 10 days before seroconversion. The Qual XC assay can be used in both laboratory and near-patient testing environments.
Increased demand for chemistry and immunoassay products helped boost sales in Diagnostics’ clinical lab business, though new innovations likely contributed too. Beckman Coulter debuted a tabletop analyzer and workflow automated solution last winter and spring, expanding the company’s solutions for small and medium-sized laboratories.
The DxH 560 AL analyzer features auto-loading, closed-tube aspiration, and walkaway capabilities. Designed to reduce the time and resource constraints faced by small to mid-size labs, the analyzer uses a 17µL sample, one of the smallest sample volumes on the market; users can continually load up to 50 samples, and results are delivered in 60 seconds or less.
The DxH 560 AL provides privacy and security features including customizable user login, paperless data management, and fully traceable automated timeoouts that guard patient electronic personal health data.
The DxA 5000 Fit is a workflow automation solution for medium-sized labs running less than 5,000 tests daily. Its workflow automation solution can reduce up to 80% of manual steps through pre-analytical, analytical, and post-analytical automation. The DxA 5000 features intelligent routing and calculated route planning for rapid and consistent turnaround time, with statistics prioritized to deliver results faster, and a flexible design that can be adapted to meet a mid-volume lab’s space and infrastructure constraints.
Robust demand for blood gas consumables and immunoassay products lifted acute care diagnostic sales in 2021, though the hike partially was offset by lower instrument revenue (not surprising, considering the pandemic-induced demand for blood gas instruments in 2020).
Pathology business sales rose amid higher demand for core histology, advanced staining, and pathology imaging products. Leica Biosystems and Mammotome both introduced new solutions last year: Leica worked with Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS to develop a DICOM implementation solution for its next-generation Aperio GT 450 DX scanner. The product now produces DICOM Whole Slide Images natively, thus meeting industry standards to enable compatibility with PACS and tighter integration of digital pathology into the diagnostic pathway.
Mammotome, meanwhile, unveiled new flexible HydroMARK Breast Biopsy Site Marker applicators last April. Intended to simplify and improve user intuitiveness, the new applicator line expands compatibility with vacuum-assisted breast biopsy systems, including the Mammotome Revolve dual Vacuum-Assisted Breast Biopsy System. The hydrogel technology hydrates, reaching more than 90% water in less than 24 hours, and the new flexible applicator design allows for easier deployment in upright biopsies.