We have noted that you focus on increasing R&D budget to develop new products and to remain competitive. What are your strategies to address competition arising out of launch of new products by competitors?

Thank you for your observations and yes, you are absolutely correct. Last year, we invested approx $350 million in R&D, which is between four-to-five percent of our manufacturing revenue and we are proud that our 1,700 scientists are busy creating new and better technology for our customers. We have a strong intellectual property position and also have a world-class advisory board with members from leading institutions such as Harvard Medical School and Stanford School of Medicine. Our focus on innovation enables us to develop better, more efficient technologies keeping in mind the changing requirements of our customers.

Of the three Thermo brands, Thermo Scientific, Fisher Scientific and Unity Lab Services, where do you see growth potential in Asia pacific region and why?
Thank you for this interesting question. Our organization has evolved over the past decade through a variety of factors including a number of interesting brands and technologies that are now offered through one entity. It is very important for us to position our brands and communicate our combined technology platforms in a simplified manner to our customers and therefore we describe each of our brands as having specific attributes that address customer needs.

The Thermo Scientific brand represents the scale and depth of our capability in analytical instruments, laboratory products, biosciences products and specialty diagnostics. The Fisher Scientific brand represents choice and convenience and a variety of purchasing options as well as our clinical trial services, logistics and an eCommerce platform. Unity Lab Services is our newest brand, launched earlier this year. Unity Lab Services offers product and laboratory support services to create a single solution for customers to optimize productivity and reduce their total cost of laboratory operations.

How is Thermo addressing sensitive issues such as pricing and regulatory formats while handling the customers in Asia Pacific?
I think we are very competitive in our pricing when compared to our major competitors. We constantly work on upgrading our technology to meet changing demands such as precision and reproducibility (driven by regulatory) or QC productivity (driven by manufacturing).