“We have nine new products to be launched in 2010”

—Hemant K Gupta, president, Axygen Scientific
Founded and incorporated in 1993, Axygen Scientific is one of the leading global suppliers of laboratory plastics for the research industry, including the pharmaceutical, biotech, and academia markets. Axygen is headquartered in Union City, California. In an interview with  Hemant K Gupta, president, Axygen Scientific, we find out more about the company’s future plans.

What have  been the company’s revenues for the year 2008-2009? What percentage of these are derived from the Asia Pacific region?
We registered consolidated revenues of  $110 million in  2008, including the  80 countries that Axygen operates in. Approximately 5.2 percent of our revenues are derived from the Asia Pacific region. We have been meeting our targets every year and this year also we expect similar performance. Some of the growth drivers of Axygen are the constant introduction of new products, penetration of international markets and strategic acquisitions.

How has Axygen addressed the needs of the life sciences market since its inception?
For Axygen product improvement does not stop with a one-time change. It’s a continuous process driven by our desire to help scientists to get consistent results faster and easier. Our R&D, engineering and marketing teams work closely with customers to continuously update our products and introduce novel designs.

What are the different segments that the company operates in and what are the revenue grossing products for Axygen over the last year?
High throughput screening (HTS), PCR and reagents are some of the segments we operate in. We enjoy a market share of 60 percent in the HTS segment in India.
High throughput screening products have been the biggest revenue driver for Axygen over the last year. Recently we have entered into the nucleic acid purification market with a wide range of kits and reagents.

What are the major collaborations of Axygen over the last year and how those collaborations influenced the business?
We have a number of important collaborations with the academia and industry. We have become a leader in our market by strategic acquisitions of other companies. Including the  recently  acquired Sorenson Biosciences (2008), a global leader in innovative consumables and lab-ware.

What are the emerging markets for Axygen and how are you trying to increase the business in those markets?
China, India and Singapore are some of the emerging markets for Axygen.
Our field staffs are working closely with our distribution partners to identify opportunities and close them in a timely fashion. We have also organized training programs and sales meetings to bring our distributors closer to us and penetrate the market.

What do you think is the strength of the company?
We believe our strength is in our field personnel who work with our customers. We also have a strong marketing team in all the countries that we operate in. We believe we are a customer-friendly company that involves the scientist in building up our product range. Besides, we can design and manufacture consumable products and kits from any of our worldwide locations.

What are the trends that you see  in technology worldwide?
Customers are looking for the freedom to choose their robotic system and have consumables to work with the system of their choice. Customers don’t want to be locked in with a single company for instruments and consumables which limits their choices. We offer consumables that work on a number of market leading platforms and give customers the power to choose. Customers are also looking for the best value for their money and Axygen can deliver this for the customers.

What are the products to be launched next year?
Two technologies that we plan to launch in the coming year are RNA and micro RNA isolation kits for RNAi and stem cell research and novel reagents like X-Gal/IPTG spray and Smart Ampicillin. This year, we plan to launch cell and tissue culture lab-ware. In the first half of the year we plan to launch protein kits and protein matrix in the Indian market. We have nine new products to be launched in 2010 in the area of HTS, five new products in the reagents segment. We also aim to go a notch up and register a 10 percent increase in revenues in the next financial year through our product range.