QIAGEN N.V. (NASDAQ: QGEN; Frankfurt Prime Standard: QIA) has announced that it exceeded its goal for new placements of the QIAsymphony modular laboratory workflow platform in 2012. The growth of QIAsymphony, which offers full workflow solutions from biological sample to result, reached well more than 750 placements at the end of 2012, building on more than 550 at the end of 2011.
"We are very pleased to have exceeded our 2012 target for QIAsymphony, a breakthrough automation system that is improving laboratory workflows and accelerating the dissemination of molecular testing. We expect QIAsymphony to be a growth driver for QIAGEN over the next decade, and the strong uptake in the early years of its introduction is very positive," said Peer M. Schatz, Chief Executive Officer of QIAGEN N.V. "Customers in Molecular Diagnostics, Applied Testing and other types of molecular laboratories continue to respond positively to the cost-effective workflow and growing menu of test content for the QIAsymphony. We expect QIAsymphony placements to exceed 1,000 by the end of 2013 while also delivering on initiatives to expand the test menu, particularly in the United States and Europe, that will further increase the use of our consumables by customers."
QIAsymphony is an innovative, easy-to-use modular system that integrates a molecular laboratory's workflow from initial biological sample processing to final result. The QIAsymphony SP (sample preparation) and AS (assay setup) modules were introduced in 2008 and 2009, respectively, and in late 2010 QIAGEN launched the fully integrated QIAsymphony RGQ system that added the Rotor-Gene Q, the world's first rotary real-time PCR cycler, to the system. QIAsymphony gives customers access to a broad range of commercially available assays while also allowing them to run laboratory-developed tests (LDTs), which often account for more than half the volume of molecular testing in a typical laboratory. Additional features include continuous loading, random access and the ability to process an almost unlimited range of sample types.
Approximately 70% of all QIAsymphony systems placed through the end of 2012 have been with Molecular Diagnostics customers, and primarily to these customers through reagent rental agreements where revenues are recognized over a multi-year period. In the Life Sciences customer classes, which account for approximately 30% of placements, demand has also been strong among Applied Testing customers (human ID/forensics, food safety and veterinary medicine), particularly following the launch of new QIAsymphony protocols for these applications in early 2012.
