ABI Plans to Introduce Off-the-Shelf Assays

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 10 - Applied Biosystems plans to introduce a new Assays-On-Demand product beginning in June, company officials said here on Thursday.  

The kits, designed to assess gene expression, SNP genotyping, and exons of known genes, will be available to order on ABI's e-commerce website, said Steve Lombardi, the firm's senior vice president of applications and products.

The pre-made assays join ABI's Assays-By-Design and the recently introduced 4700 Proteomics Analyzer as new products meant to address shifts in genomics and proteomics research.

"The assays are predefined and validated," said Lombardi. "[You] end up taking a process that could take months and getting it down to a few days."

"I think [the assays] will be a big deal," said Scott Greenstone, vice president of equity research at Thomas Weisel Partners. "It's a higher value product for them and there's a trend for pre-made assays."

The assays are part of a shift to ABI "providing more content-based products," said Michael Hunkapiller, president of Applied Biosystems.

But "can they overcome a decline in instrument placements?" asked Greenstone. "It is a difficult road for them to get back to 20 percent [revenue growth]."