The ink was hardly dried on the paperwork for Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.‘s deal to acquire German in-vitro diagnostics maker B.R.A.H.M.S. AG for roughly $470 million before the union’s first product hit the market.
The Waltham, Mass.-based lab instruments and supplies maker, which said it closed the deal Oct. 1, released a new assay to detect heart attacks in Europe. The Copeptin assay is a biomarker for acute myocardial infarction, detected using a blood test.
Thermo Fisher said it’s generating the data for a 510(k) pre-market application for the test and plans to submit the data to the Food and Drug Administration at the end of next year.
When it announced the acquisition in early September, then-CEO Marijn Dekkers said the merger significantly expanded TMO’s reagent manufacturing footprint in Europe. Hennigsdorf, Germany-based B.R.A.H.M.S. employs about 400 workers and posted sales of about $105 million last year.
Thermo Fisher reported $2.53 billion in third-quarter sales, down 2. percent over the year-ago quarter, and $221 million in net income, a 1 percent increase. The results prompted it to lower its full-year sales forecast to $9.95 billion to $10.05 billion, down from $9.8 billion to $10.1 billion, which would be 4 percent to 5 percent less than full-year 2008 revenues.
The company also cut by its adjusted earnings-per-share guidance to $2.95-$3.05, compared with previous estimates of $2.85-$3.10, which would result in a 1 percent to 9 percent decline compared last year.
