Vector 1, I have not analyzed any of the 'pick and shovel' companies you listed from an investment perspective, but I have used products from most of them. The companies that make major equipment such as ultracentrifuges, sequencer, protein synthesizer, HPLC, phoshorimager, densitometer, gamma and scintillation counters, ELSA plate reader, microscopes, Speed Vac etc, probably have big margins. They also charge a small fortune for the software and computer systems that go with these systems. Some companies in this group include Beckman, LKB, Molecular Dynamics, and BioRad. Fisher Scientific, VWR and Bectin Dickenson (bought SP) are scientific super market type companies that sell all the basics, from furniture, refrigerators, freezers, to disposables. A local university signed a deal with Fisher Scientific last year to supply all the basics, exclusively. Disposable basics include gloves, syringes, test tubes, microfuge tubes, micro pipet tips, pipets, tissue culture dishes and flasks, media. Promega, Grand Island/BRL, Biolabs and Pharmacia Biotech sell molecular biology products such as enzymes, vectors, PCR related products. Companies that supply niche products such as various kits to extract and purify RNA and DNA, expression kits, hybridization kits, oligo labeling kits etc., command high prices for their products (Quiagen, Ambion). Amersham, New England Nuclear (Dupont) and ICN supply radioisotopes and radio-labelled compounds. Sigma and JT Baker supplie a lot of basic lab chemicals. Then there companies that sell antibodies and assay kits. Another area to consider is hazardous waste disposal (infectious, toxic and/or radioactive). It is getting to be more expensive to dispose of the waste than to buy the product. Among all these companies, there must be a few that are worthwhile for investment.
Frances |
