Perkin-Elmer
In February 1993 Applied Biosystems was acquired by Perkin-Elmer, and became the Applied Biosystems Division, as part of the Life Sciences markets segment of that company. Andre Marion, who had been Applied Biosystems's Chairman, President and CEO, became a Senior Vice President of Perkin-Elmer, and President of the Applied Biosystems Division. That year the company was the world's leading manufacturer of instruments and reagents for polymerase chain reaction (PCR). It marketed PCR reagents kits in alliance with Hoffman-La Roche Inc.
In 1994, Perkin-Elmer reported net revenues of over $1 billion, of which Life Sciences accounted for 42% of the business. The company has 5,954 employees. A brand-new highly competitive genomics industry had formed for the development of new pharmaceuticals, based on the work of the Human Genome Project. Companies such as Human Genome Sciences (NASDAQ: HGSI) in Maryland, Myriad Genetics (NASDAQ: MYGN) in Utah, INCYTE Pharmaceuticals (later Incyte Genomics) (NASDAQ: INCY) in California, and Millennium Pharmaceuticals relied on the Applied Biosystems Division, which made thermal cyclers and automated sequencers for these new genomics companies.
In 1995, upon Andre Marion retirement, Mike Hunkapiller became President of PE Applied Biosystems Division which sold its 30,000th thermal cycler. To meet Human Genome Project goals, Perkin-Elmer developed mapping kits with markers every 10 million bases along each chromosome. Also that year, DNA fingerprinting using PCR became accepted in court as reliable forensic evidence.
In 1996, Perkin-Elmer acquired Tropix, Inc., a chemiluminescence company, for its life sciences division.
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