Funding cuts for government and academic researchers led to weakened demand for tools for "cutting-edge proteomics and life science research," said Waters CEO Douglas Berthiaume during a conference call discussing the company's second-quarter results.

That, along with orders delayed in anticipation of the launch of Waters' new Synapt G2-S mass spectrometer at the American Society for Mass Spectrometry annual meeting in June, led to slowing demand in Q2 for the company's existing Synapt machines, Berthiaume said.