Total life science revenue for the quarter ended July 31 $335m, up 4 per cent on the year earlier period, with the contributions from Pall’s biopharmaceuticals and medical technology businesses growing 7.2 per cent and 1.1 per cent, respectively.
The gains continue the pattern set in previous quarters and, according to Pall, reflect sustained “healthy demand” for vaccines and the “expanding adoption” of single-use systems for biotechnology production.
The importance of bioproduction tehncology to Pall’s Q4 performance vindicates the considerable effort the US industrial processing firm has put into expanding this part of its business in recent times.
Since January Pall has: bought bioprocess firm MicroReacter Technologies; launched the PallSep biofiltering technology; expanded its Florida biofilter plant; and, in June, partnered with New Brunswick on disposable bioreactor technology.
Global contribution
The performance of Pall’s life sciences business, which, in addition to its core biopharmaceuticals unit includes medical technologies and food and beverage divisions, also reflects geographical trends seen in the drug manufacturing sector.
Europe maintained its position as the biggest contributor despite a 3.6 per cent decline in revenue to $148m. Confusingly, the firm also said sales in the Western Hemisphere, which presumably excludes Europe, increased 8.6 per cent to $123m.
Life science sales in Asia, a rapidly emerging global biomanufacturing hub, grew the most in the fiscal fourth quarter with revenue increasing some 20 per cent to just over $63m, again continuing the trend seen earlier in the year.
Fiscal 2010
For the full year life sciences sales hit $1.2bn, up some 6.1 per cent with revenue from the biopharmaceutical and medical technology industry growing 12.7 per cent and 2.5 per cent to $620m and $399m, respectively.
These gains, coupled with growth of its recently re-orgainsed aeropower and microelectronics units, more than offset the 7.6 decline in Pall’s energy and water processing business, leaving the firm with total annual sales of $2.4bn, up some 3 per cent on fiscal 2009.