MILFORD, Mass.—Lookingto simultaneously present a united message to the growing market for cellculture products and services, while also furthering cooperation among a hostof internal divisions, Thermo Fisher Scientific announced in early June thecreation of the Cell Culture Excellence Program. The program looks to leveragea variety of Thermo Fisher brands including, but not limited to, Cellomics,Dharmacon, Pierce, Nunc and Nalgene to provide cell culture products andservices for researchers working in the areas of functional biology, cell-basedtherapeutics and diseases studies.
"The program was launched for a couple of reasons," saysJeff Goldman, marketing manger for the cell culture program. "There is thebrand-building piece, which is necessary because we have many customers who maybe buying products from one brand, but don't have awareness of the full arrayof products and the related applications they serve. Also, our applicationexperts have put together many and will put together more application notes inspecific areas of research to make it easier for our customers to have accessto protocols that are directly relevant to their research."
While the program is aimed at educating life scienceresearchers that they can get most, if not all, of the tools and reagents neededfor cell culture work from a single source, it is apparent the cell cultureprogram is also aimed long-term at creating a working atmosphere at ThermoFisher of greater collaboration between divisions to optimize the breadth ofproducts it has for the ever-growing cell culture segment.
"This program should really help us to talk more among thegroups, from consumables to tools, and sharing more information which willallow us to better help customers with their specific research workflows," saysHeidi McIntosh, product manager for Nunc cell culture and Nalgene filtrationproducts at Thermo Fisher.
The launch of the program and the focus on cell culture alsoappears to be an indication of the long-running integration process withinThermo Fisher, not just from the mega-merger of the two companies in 2006, butof the host of other well-known and respected brands that have been broughtinto the company fold in the past few years.
"We have a historical brand name and there is always a bitof a ramp up," notes Dave Radspinner, director of marketing and customerapplications in cell culture and bioprocessing. "I can tell you of a number oftimes we have been in our branded exhibit booth and a customer will walk up toask what happened to Nalgene and they are standing right next to the Nalgeneline."
The cell culture program, then, helps Thermo Fisher bothreinforce the brand and associate product lines while also presenting to themarket the breadth of products and services the company has across theenterprise to tackle not just single applications, but entire fields ofresearch.
"We anticipate a strong market and the increasedfunding we are seeing in stem research is good indication of that," saysGoldman. "It is a multi-billion dollar market and, until now, there hasn't beena company able to take a comprehensive approach to this market.'
"Customers are always looking for a simplified process ofdoing their work," notes Radspinner. "Rather than working with 15 differentvendors to get everything they need, they can turn to a single source and thatallows them more time for their research."
Beyond the internal nuts and bolts, the program is beinglaunched at a time when cell culture research is blossoming. In addition,government funding could play a role in helping to drive continued growth.
"We anticipate a strong market and the increasedfunding we are seeing in stem research is good indication of that," saysGoldman. "It is a multi-billion dollar market and, until now, there hasn't beena company able to take a comprehensive approach to this market.'
