Business
Addressing the economic downturn through
LAB INSTRUMENT RENTAL
The majority of life sciences labs are facing an unprecedented decline in capex budgets and their subsequent ability to purchase new laboratory instruments. The default option underpinning lab instrument and equipment sales to life sciences has historically been the outright purchase model. The economic slump has fostered a growing market for low cost, used, surplus or refurbished instruments. The lab instrument rental or lease alternative has up till now not been widely available or considered. The results of a recent market survey showed a significant degree of latent interest to explore alternative purchasing scenarios with interest greatest for the rental of high-end (the most expensive) instruments, which they see little chance of being able to afford to buy outright. Vendors should be encouraged to investigate all possible substitutes to the traditional outright purchase model as potential customers have never been more open and receptive to consider alternatives than they are today. Lab instrument rental or lease options merit inclusion in the mix of potential purchasing options.
R
ental of machinery, instruments, equipment and tools is the norm in many industries and areas of research and business today.
Yet for life science research undertaken within phar- ma, biotech and academia, lab instrument rental is almost unheard of and owning lab equipment is still seen as important to most end-users. Furthermore, many instrument vendors and their sales people through commission and quarterly sales targets are highly driven towards selling new instruments and associated support/service contracts, and for main-
Drug Discovery World Spring 2013
taining a market based on sales. Perhaps the most notable exception is in the diagnostic testing field where very few instruments are actually ever sold – most are rented, leased or provided free-of-charge with a consumables purchase agreement. In this case the diagnostic instrument vendor typically amortises the instrument depreciation over the reagent con- tract. Although the diversity of applications and fre- quency of project changes in life sciences research in general may preclude the widespread adoption of the diagnostic approach.
By Dr John Comley
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