FlowCytoNews
Flow cytometry, gated weekly.
ISSUE #5 · FRIDAY EDITION · INDUSTRY MOVES · OCT 23, 2026
Welcome to the Friday edition of FlowCytoNews. Friday is Industry Moves: what instrument, reagent, CRO, CDMO and cell-therapy companies did this week, each item linked to its source. Monday is The Literature; Wednesday is On the Calendar. This week three CD19 CAR-Ts reported multiple sclerosis data on the same day, China drafted export limits on cell and gene therapy technology, and Thermo Fisher said academic revenue was flat. Tell us what we missed — hit reply.
■ Industry Moves
Instruments & software
Thermo Fisher academic revenue was flat in Q3; Danaher's improved from a low base
Thermo Fisher grew Q3 revenue 9% to $12.14B, with 6% organic growth. Life Sciences Solutions, which includes its cell-analysis and reagent lines, rose to $2,719M from $2,588M, but grew 1% organic. On the call, management said academic and government revenue "was flat during the quarter," pharma and biotech grew high single digits, and demand for bioscience reagents stayed soft. Thermo raised 2026 guidance to $47.7–48.2B revenue and $25.13–25.43 adjusted EPS. Danaher, which owns Beckman Coulter, grew revenue 8.5% to $6.6B with core revenue up 3.0%; Life Sciences core revenue rose 4.5%. Its CFO said Beckman Coulter Life Sciences delivered strong results, including in automation, and that life-science instrument core revenue grew mid-single digits. CEO Julie Sawyer Montgomery said academic demand was below historic levels but improved sequentially; China grew high single digits. Danaher raised adjusted EPS guidance to $8.57–8.62 from $8.45–8.60. Neither company broke out flow cytometry.
▪ Thermo Fisher · Oct 21 · Q3 release (8-K) · call transcript ▪ Danaher · Oct 21 · Q3 release (8-K) · call transcript
Why it matters: Pharma is buying, academia is not, and reagents feel it first. That split will show up again at Waters (BD Biosciences) and Revvity (BioLegend) on Nov 3 and Cytek on Nov 4. If you run an academic core with year-end money, vendors chasing Q4 numbers against flat academic demand are as negotiable as they will be all year.
Quick hits — instruments & software
Standard BioTools set a virtual special meeting for Nov 19 at 9:00 a.m. ET to vote on its merger with Treeline (new name Treeline Biosciences, ticker TRLN) and on selling the mass cytometry business (CyTOF, Hyperion, Maxpar) to Element Biosystems, a GMT Venture Partners subsidiary, for $5.5M. Multiplex Bio, the earlier buyer, gets a $1.5M termination fee, $1.0M of it paid by GMT. Proxy (424B3), Oct 21
Sartorius said nine-month Lab Products & Services sales were €524.2M, up 8.3% in constant currency excluding tariff compensation (7.5% including it), and now expects the division "around the upper end of its 4 to 6 percent range." EQS release, Oct 22
No product or deal news in the window from Waters/BD, Sony, Agilent, Bio-Rad, Miltenyi, Sysmex, DiaSorin/Luminex, ThinkCyte, Deepcell or the analysis-software companies (FlowJo, OMIQ, FCS Express, Cytobank, Ozette, Teiko).
Reagents & controls
No flow-reagent or control news in the window from BioLegend/Revvity, BD Horizon, Thermo eBioscience, Bio-Techne, Biotium, Cell Signaling, Abcam, Bangs, Spherotech or Slingshot. Revvity reports Q3 before the open on Nov 3, with the call at 7:30 a.m. ET (release).
Biopharma, CROs & CDMOs
Three CD19 CAR-Ts reported in multiple sclerosis on one day; only one gave a B-cell depletion number
At MSToronto 2026 on Oct 23, TG Therapeutics reported 26 people with progressive MS treated with azer-cel, its allogeneic CD19 CAR-T, after bendamustine lymphodepletion: blood B cells fell below 10 cells/µL in 25 of 26 (96%), and in CSF from 21 participants, CD19-positive B-cell events fell by a median 52.3% at day 10. EDSS was stable or improved in 16 of 18 evaluable participants at day 90, with no grade ≥3 CRS. Bristol Myers Squibb presented 66 patients from Phase 1 Breakfree-2 of zola-cel (30 highly active relapsing, 36 progressive): CRS in 42.4% (28/66), ICANS in 7.6%, six of seven evaluable relapsing patients met no-evidence-of-disease-activity criteria at week 26 or later, and 22 of 24 progressive patients were stable or improved. One relapsing patient died of septic pneumonia 44 days after infusion, after the data cutoff. BMS describes "complete B-cell depletion" without a threshold. Kyverna reported six progressive MS patients in an investigator-led trial of miv-cel: complete depletion of CD19-positive blood B cells in all, repopulation starting at month 3, and CAR-T cells in CSF peaking around day 14. Kyverna plans an update on its progressive MS strategy by early 2027.
▪ TG Therapeutics · Oct 23 · release ▪ BMS · Oct 23 · release (Business Wire, via StockTitan) ▪ Kyverna · Oct 23 · release (GlobeNewswire, via StockTitan)
Why it matters: "Complete," "below 10 cells/µL" and "a 52% drop in CSF events" are three different measurements, and you cannot rank the products on them. Autoimmune CAR-T will be a large flow workload, much of it in low-cellularity CSF, and sponsors have not agreed what "depleted" means. The labs that win this work will report absolute counts with a validated lower limit, and that is a selling point CROs should be making now.
China drafts export limits on cell and gene therapy technology; comments close Nov 15
China's Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Science and Technology published Announcement No. 48 on Oct 16, a draft adding 40 technologies to the catalogue of technologies prohibited or restricted from export: 23 in AI, 12 in photovoltaics and 5 in biomedicine, covering cell and gene therapy, small nucleic acid drugs and pathogen-related technology. Comments run Oct 16–Nov 15. In law firm Morgan Lewis's reading, the proposed prohibition on proprietary CGT platforms covers transfers of ownership, while licenses and outsourced research or manufacturing services that do not transfer ownership are expressly excluded; the restricted entries on discovering new CGT targets carry no such general exclusion.
▪ MOFCOM · Oct 16 · Announcement No. 48 (Chinese) · Morgan Lewis analysis
Why it matters: A large share of the in vivo and allogeneic CAR-T pipeline was licensed out of China. If this passes as drafted, licensing keeps working and buying the whole platform gets harder, so Western sponsors will run more trials on technology they rent. The immune-monitoring work lands in US and European CRO labs either way.
Quick hits — biopharma, CROs & CDMOs
Kyverna presented one-year data from its registrational stiff person syndrome study of miv-cel (n=26): median Timed 25-Foot Walk improvement of 46% at week 16 and 49% at one year, with 92% (24/26) free of chronic immunotherapies. GlobeNewswire, Oct 21
Vivacta Bio and Grit Bio received FDA orphan drug designation for GT801, an in vivo mRNA-LNP anti-CD19 CAR-T, in autoimmune hemolytic anemia; both patients treated so far reached complete response. PR Newswire, Oct 17
Roche removed RG6540, an allogeneic CD19xCD20 CAR-T for blood cancers that came with its Poseida purchase, from its Phase 1 pipeline in its Q3 update. via Fierce Biotech, Oct 22 · Roche Q3 deck
CPTx will present rodent efficacy and first non-human-primate safety data for its non-viral in vivo CAR-T at ESGCT in Hamburg (poster Oct 29, oral Oct 30). GlobeNewswire, Oct 20
Quest Diagnostics grew Q3 revenue 10.0% to $3.10B, raised 2026 revenue guidance to $12.065–12.105B from $11.95–12.05B, and agreed to buy outreach lab assets from an unnamed Northeastern health system; terms undisclosed. 8-K, Oct 22
Medpace booked $873.4M in Q3 net new awards, up from $789.6M, on revenue of $716.0M (+8.5%), and narrowed 2026 revenue guidance to $2.835–2.855B from $2.805–2.885B. 8-K, Oct 21
Eurofins reported nine-month revenue of €5,614M with 3.0% organic growth (3.5% in Q3) and said full-year organic growth will fall below its initial mid-single-digit objective. via Option Finance, Oct 21
No flow-lab news in the window from Labcorp, Precision for Medicine, CellCarta, KCAS, Frontage, BioAgilytix, Cerba/FlowMetric, Lonza, Minaris or WuXi. IQVIA and ICON report Q3 Oct 27, NeoGenomics Oct 28, Charles River Nov 4.
By the numbers
Company | What | Number | vs. prior / guidance |
|---|---|---|---|
Thermo Fisher | Q3 revenue | $12.14B, +6% organic | 2026 guidance raised to $47.7–48.2B |
Thermo Fisher | Life Sciences Solutions | $2,719M, +1% organic | $2,588M a year ago |
Danaher | Q3 revenue | $6.6B, +3.0% core | Adj. EPS guide $8.57–8.62 (was $8.45–8.60) |
Danaher | Life Sciences core growth | +4.5% | — |
Sartorius | Lab Products & Services, 9 months | €524.2M, +8.3% cc | Upper end of 4–6% range |
Quest | Q3 revenue | $3.10B, +10.0% | Guidance raised to $12.065–12.105B |
Medpace | Q3 net new awards | $873.4M | $789.6M a year ago |
Eurofins | 9-month revenue | €5,614M, +3.0% organic | FY below initial mid-single-digit goal |
Hiring — vendors, CROs, cores & clinical labs
Beckman Coulter is adding flow sales and field-application staff in the US, and cell-therapy QC flow is hiring on evening shifts (BMS Devens, BioLegend San Diego, IQVIA Valencia).
Company | Role | Location · pay |
|---|---|---|
Beckman Coulter Life Sciences | Remote (GA, NC or SC) · $105–115K base | |
Beckman Coulter Life Sciences | Upper Midwest, Minneapolis preferred · $85–100K | |
Sony Biotechnology | French-speaking Western Europe · pay not shown | |
Revvity (BioLegend) | San Diego · $23.55–31.50/hr | |
Bristol Myers Squibb | Devens, MA · $36.90–44.71/hr | |
IQVIA (Q2 Solutions) | Valencia, CA · $34,700–72,300 | |
Labcorp | Phoenix, AZ · pay not shown | |
Charles River | Portishead, UK · pay not shown | |
Lurie Children's | Chicago · $37.00–60.50/hr | |
University of Rochester | Rochester, NY · $38.64–52.16 | |
Ochsner Health | New Orleans · pay not shown (sign-on bonus up to $15,000) | |
University of Minnesota | Minneapolis, part-time · $45–55/hr |
What did we miss? Hit reply — corrections run at the top of the next edition.
— Flow Crew