Sysmex Corp. of America and Roche Diagnostics are ending their four-year-old hematology alliance a year early. Both companies say the alliance has been successful. But Roche wants to focus on its franchises in fast-growing segments of the laboratory, and Sysmex, with a series of hematology product introductions underway, wants to raise its profile in the US. The move also signals an about-face from the initial premise for doing the deal, one which was widely pervasive throughout the medical device and diagnostics sectors in the 1990s: that customers want one-stop shopping and the discounts that come from bundling one manufacturer's broad product lines. Sysmex instead is turning to a best-of-breed strategy, which has served it well in major European markets, and which, it believes, will ultimately be more lucrative.
The winding down of the distribution and sales agreement between
Sysmex Corp. of America and Roche Diagnostics in hematology a year early signals the
start of a more aggressive US strategy for a strengthened Sysmex.
In addition, it is indicative of the continuing dogged appeal of a
best-of-breed strategy in a diagnostics market that extolled for
much of the 1990s the alternative values of bundling and breadth of
product line.
The announcement came in May in the form of an asset purchase agreement, in which Roche Diagnostics , a subsidiary of Roche , transferred its US hematology business back...
