Beckman Coulter sees earnings drop in Q4

In addition to the NexGen costs, the maker of biomedical diagnostics instruments absorbed supply chain restructuring costs, further denting its profit margins. Earning for the quarter came in at $44.8m, or 69 cents per share, down 28 poer cent on the $62.3m, or 97 cents per share, earned in the same period last year. NexGen, which was created as a spin out of Lumigen, was aacquired by BC last year for $136m. Net income for the quarter included an in-process R&D write off associated with the acquisition of NexGen of $35.4m. Supply chain restructuring costs totalled $4.2m. There was good news. Fourth quarter revenue increased from $789m from $712m - an increase of 10.8 per cent. This was attributed to strong sales of its clinical diagnostics, partially offset by a lukewarm demand for life science products. Product revenue also rose 11 per cent in the fourth quarter to $674m from $608m from last year. Service revenue for the quarter amounted to $115m, up 10.3 per cent from $104m in the same quarter last year. "Fourth quarter results demonstrate the ongoing strength of our clinical diagnostics business worldwide​," said Scott Garrett, president and CEO. "We continue to gain market share in both clinical chemistry and immunoassay. Sales of our immunoassay systems grew at more than twice the market rate with placements of the new mid-range Immunoassay system, the UniCel DxI 600, contributing to this growth​." The UniCel DxH, Bechman's new haematology system, is expected to be introduced at the end of 2008. As well as this the firm has its DxN 'sample-to-result' instrument for molecular diagnostics in the pipeline. Added to the acquisition of the Dako flow cytometry business and the acquired portfolio of technology from NexGen, Beckman says it is in a strong position to progress in high-value arenas such as immunoassay, molecular diagnostics and flow cytometry. Revenue from Beckman's clinical diagnostics products increased to $631m from $560m m in Q4 last year - a jump of 12.8 per cent. Within clinical diagnostics, revenue for immunoassay increased to $158m, up 19.2 per cent. Revenues for chemistry systems rose 12.8 per cent to $206m. Life science product sales increased a rather more lacklustre 3.7 per cent to $158m from $153m in Q4 2006. The company attributed this rise in the life science product markets worldwide, which exhibited small gains due to slow growth. Consumables sales increased to 10.9 per cent, with the purchase of Lumigen in the last year's quarter contributing 1.0 per cent to the increase. Access immunoassay consumables increased 18.2 per cent over Q4 2006. Recurring revenue, comprised of supplies, test kits, service revenue and operating-type lease payments, climbed 12.9 per cent to $576m from last year's figure of $510m.