Consumables continue to drive sales growth.

Affymetrix reported third quarter sales of $76.2 million, up 4.7% from the same period a year ago. Excluding revenues related to Perlegen Sciences, sales grew 8.2% to $73.4 milllon. Operating income more than doubled to $8.2 million, excluding amortization. Product sales grew 12.7% to $57.5

million, including record instrument revenues of $18.1 million. Sales of probe arrays and related supplies increased 3.1% to $39.4 million and included GeneChip array revenues of $34.3 million. Reagent sales increased 24.4% to $5.1 million. Affymetrix reported that academia now accounts for 50% of its product sales. Product-related revenue (subscription fees, service and "other" revenues, license fees and milestone revenue) grew 13.9% to $13.6 million as license fees and service revenue increased and software sales and subscription fees decreased. Royalties and "Other" revenues fell 54% to $2.3 million. Affymetrix improved its bottom line by increasing sales and production efficiencies and trimming R&D and SG&A costs. The company expects year-end product revenues of $280 million and total revenues of approximately $300 million.

Amersham Biosciences reported a 1.3% increase in third quarter sales to 158.0 million [pounds sterling] ($254.8 million = 0.62 [pounds sterling] = $1) over third quarter 2002 sales of 156.0 million [pounds sterling] ($240.0 million = 0.65 [pounds sterling] = $1), a 6.2% increase in US dollars. The Protein Separations business grew 7% to 67.0 million [pounds sterling] ($108.1 million) due to strong sales of the AKTApilot protein purification system and strong sales in North America. Discovery System sales were flat at 91.0 million [pounds sterling] ($146.8 million) as sales growth for proteomics products and bioassays was offset by continued weakness in the sequencing market.

Bio-Rad Laboratories reported third quarter sales of $247.7 million, a 10.1% increase over the same period a year ago, including 6.0% in favorable currency effects. Operating income fell 6.5% to $33.3 million. Life Science sales grew 11.2% to $118.0 million. On a constant currency basis, Life Science sales improved 5.4% due to increased sales of process chromatography, imaging, nucleic acid amplification and protein array products. Operating profits declined as R&D expenses grew nearly 20% and costs of goods sold increased 15%.

Caliper Technologies announced a 150% increase in third quarter revenues to $16.5 million over the previous third quarter, a gain due to the acquisition of Zymark. The company's operating loss improved $2.5 million to $8.7 million, excluding amortization and restructuring charges. Microfluidic product revenues grew 15% due to the Agilent collaboration. Caliper expects to ship 500,000 microfluidic chips to Agilent this year. It was able to lower R&D expenses and completed a significant reduction in work force after the merger in hopes of realizing cost synergies. Caliper expects 2003 revenues of $46 million to $51 million. Goals for year end include $10 million in cost synergies between Caliper and Zymark and $60 million in available cash.

Invitrogen reported a 21.1% increase in third quarter revenues to $196.9 million, with operating income improving 15.8% to $42.2 million, excluding amortization and restructuring charges. Cell Culture revenues jumped 28% to $71.6 million, while Molecular Biology sales increased 17% to $125.4 million, with acquisitions adding $13.9 million.

ISCO reported fiscal fourth quarter ended July 31 revenue growth of 6.6% to $16.1 million and year--end revenue growth of 2.9% to $60.9 million. Operating profit in the fourth quarter doubled to $1.1 million, while year-end operating profit fell 46.4% to $1.5 million. For the year, core product line revenues increased 4%, liquid chromatography (LC) revenues grew 8%, sampler revenues grew 4% and flow meter revenues declined 4%. Other revenues increased 2%. Domestically, revenues grew 2% as LC, sampler and syringe pumps drove sales growth, offset by declines in sales for supercritical fluid extraction and process monitormg products. International sales rose 4%. ISCO eliminated a number of positions to streamline its organizational structure.

Third quarter revenues for Mettler-Toledo improved 4.5% to $320.8 million, almost entirely due to beneficial currency effects. Operating income fell 1% to $39.8 million. European sales declined 1% in local currency, sales in the Americas declined 5% and Asian sales grew 16%. Lab sales were down in low single digits as drug discovery sales experienced double digit declines.

Molecular Devices reported third quarter revenues of $29.3 million, an increase of 13.1%. Operating income jumped 73.2% to $3.2 million. Sales of Drug Discovery products grew 31% to $13.5 million and Life Science Research product sales totaled $15.8 for a 1% gain. Drug Discovery revenues benefited from improved sales of IonWorks HT, Discovery-1 and FLIPR products, while Life Science Research benefited from slightly improved sales of cellular imaging software. The company expects fourth quarter revenues of $32 million to $34 million and 2003 revenues of $114 million to $116 million. Fiscal 2004 revenues are estimated to grow around 10% to between $125 million and $135 million.

Oxford Instruments' Analytical Instruments revenues for the half year ended September 30 fell 12.3% to 28.6 million [pounds sterling] ($46.1 million = 0.62 [pounds sterling] = $1) from third quarter 2002 sales of 32.6 million [pounds sterling] ($50.2 million = 0.65 [pounds sterling] = $1), a decline of 8.2% in US dollars. Operating profits for the division nearly doubled to 1.5 million [pounds sterling] ($2.4 million). The business suffered from continued weak sales to the semiconductor and telecommunications markets, while sales to all other markets remained flat in comparison. The division made up 32.8% of total company revenues during the period.

QIAGEN's third quarter revenues climbed 17.6% to $90.4 million over the same period a year ago. Excluding beneficial foreign exchange effects, sales improved 11.7% to $85.9 million. Operating income jumped 49.6% to $19.3 million on sales increases and relatively flat operating expenses. The company benefited from increased spending by the pharmaceutical and biotech research markets. Consumables sales grew 17% to account for 72% of total sales, while Instrument sales accounted for 10% of total sales and grew 14%. Sales of Oligos grew 2% and made up 11% of sales and "Other" revenue jumped 65%, accounting for 7% of total sales.

Third quarter revenues for Tecan fell 5.5% to CHF 74.5 million ($54.4 million = CHF 1.37 = $1) from CHF 78.8 million ($52.9 million = CHF 1.49 = $1) a year ago, for a 2.8% increase in US dollars. Excluding amortization, operating profit tumbled 39.9% to CHF 6.1 million ($4.5 million). Genomics/ Proteomics sales improved 22.9% to CHF 22.2 million ($16.2 million), Drug Discovery sales dropped 25.3% to CHF 23.0 million ($16.8 million) and Diagnostics revenues fell 2.2% to CHF 29.3 million ($21.4 million). US sales fell, while European, Asia and "Other" country sales grew.