Pall Corporation (NYSE: PLL) is a globally prominent player in markets requiring filtration, separation and purification technologies. Pall’s business is broadly split into two businesses: Life Sciences and Industrial. Within Life Sciences, the BioSciences market is doing particularly well, as reflected in the company’s June 2008 earnings report. We spoke with Kara Cannon and Larry O’Connell about Pall’s specific life sciences strengths. David Pall founded the company in 1946. His initial invention was a porous material made of metal that was far superior to the paper filters of the day. Years of similar achievements led to Dr. Pall’s induction into the U.S. National Inventors Hall of Fame. He was cited, specifically, for the leukocyte reduction filter (US Patent No. 4,925,572) that he developed in response to the aplastic anaemia that would eventually take his wife’s life. The leukoreduction filter prevents rejection of transfused blood and eliminates the transmission of blood borne disease via transfusion by removing white blood cells from donor supplies. Introduced in the early 1990s, Pall leukocyte reduction has been shown to reduce the transmission of disease and the complications associated with blood transfusion, affording maximum patient protection by consistently achieving the lowest residential leukocyte levels available. It is a bellwether of the company’s leadership in medical and biopharmaceutical filtration technologies. The Pall Corporation has developed into the largest and broadest-based filtration, separation and purification company in the world. Pall technology is used in a broad range of environments, from mines and factories through to laboratories and hospitals, across the globe. The company’s vision is that one day all fluids will pass through Pall products. We talked about recent developments at Pall with Kara Cannon and Larry O’Connell, who are both active for Pall’s BioSciences market, which in turn forms part of the group’s Life Sciences business. Kara Cannon has been with Pall for eight years, working in various capacities, but always with a focus on the Pall Life Sciences portion of the company. She now manages global marketing and product development for Pall Biosciences, with emphasis on exploring new technologies. She has a degree in biology. Larry O’Connell has been working with Pall for 20 years, or, to be precise, 12 years with Pall proper after the company he previously worked eight years for was acquired by Pall. He has worked with Pall in various capacities also, but always in the Pall Life Sciences group. He currently manages global sales for the BioSciences business. Pall’s vision supports the company’s efforts to apply its technologies across a variety of industries. Ms. Cannon comments: “The broad scope of our capabilities from research and development all the way through to manufacture, and the way we leverage our technology by moving it from one industry to another, is unique to Pall. We’re the leading manufacturer of membranes, for example. Targeting the global research, discovery and diagnostic markets, our strategy broadly is to apply this core membrane technology that we have part developed and part acquired to products that our customers need for their specific applications. Pall also is a leading manufacturer of filtration technology, including everything ranging from membranes to glass fibres. Because we have this wide expertise, covering the full spectrum of filtration technology, we can develop specific filtration applications.” Ms. Cannon emphasises that Pall has been a global organisation for many years. “We recently made some efforts to strengthen our business in Asia, in India and China specifically, and in Latin America. We look for high growth market areas, which translates to an increased focus on areas like biotech, but also to regions where we see opportunities to expand.” The latest strategic addition to Pall’s global capabilities for the Asia- Pacific biopharmaceuticals market is its first Technical Innovation Center in China, Pall Filter (Beijing) Co., Ltd. Opened in March of this year, the Center incorporates a state-of-the-art filtration validation lab, and provides comprehensive filtration technology support for the burgeoning Chinese biopharmaceuticals industry, one of the fast growing sectors of the country’s economy. Another important milestone in the history of Pall’s Asian business was the opening of its Life Sciences Center of Excellence in Bangalore, India, in 2007. The Center should drive process optimisation innovations for the global life sciences market to meet the evolving opportunities and challenges of this fast-growing industry throughout Asia. The facility includes a state-of-the-art proteomics laboratory to help customers speed the drug discovery process. It also houses a validation laboratory and a training facility with specialty experts to support Indian and regional customers as they increasingly enter the stringently regulated drug export market. India was strategically chosen as the location for Pall’s new Center of Excellence in Asia because of the country’s highly regarded reputation in life sciences spanning biopharmaceutical research, development and production. Additionally, India’s diverse market opportunities coupled with a large pool of qualified scientists and engineers provide an ideal climate for fueling innovation and growth. “The goal of that center is to create a way for us to get closer to our customers in India,” adds Ms. Cannon. “The center also expands the capacity of our BioSciences call center. We sell products that are very technical so we need to operate a call center. The Bangalore facility now enables us to offer customer support 24/7, around the world. Looking at Pall Corporation overall, we have a vision of Total Fluid ManagementSM. To achieve this, there is a focus on looking at technology that can be applied in growth areas, markets and regions. We bring that same strategy to Pall Life Sciences and, in turn, to each of its markets. In the BioSciences space, specifically, we aim to be the first choice provider of sample preparation tools. And in order to achieve that, again we are focusing on high vertical growth markets and high growth regions.” The BioSciences industry does offer specific challenges, as Mr. O’Connell also gladly admits. “It’s a research-driven market in which the technology changes and moves quickly. In order to be an innovative company you have to keep up with those changes. We need to regularly introduce new technology to our customers, but that’s both a challenge and an opportunity. Pall has so much great technology, all we need to do in marketing is work out how to bring that effectively to our customers.” Mr. O’Connell goes on to explain that while Pall overall sells both to OEMs and through distributor networks, the biosciences industry specifically relies greatly on distribution partners. “We sell to the global laboratory community, which represents hundreds of thousands of laboratories around the world. You need specialist distributors to serve these customers.” VWR International, LLC, is Pall’s distribution partner in the US and in Europe. The two parties recently announced that they have renewed their Master Distributor Supply Agreement. With this agreement, VWR will continue to sell and promote Pall’s filtration technologies to VWR customers in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and throughout Europe. VWR, a US-based, multi-billion dollar business just like Pall, offers products from a wide range of manufacturers to a large number of customers primarily in North America, Europe and Asia. VWR International’s principal customers are major pharmaceutical, biotechnology, industrial and government organisations as well as universities and schools. The company maintains operations in over 20 countries and employs over 6,500 people worldwide. “Where needed, Pall also has its own technical people locally to work with VWR,” says Mr. O’Connell. “We’re very happy about renewing our exclusive distribution deal with them. We’ve worked with VWR for over 20 years, and beginning in late 2002 we made the decision that they would become our primary distribution partner and entered into a master distribution agreement with them. This means we’re working together exclusively in Western Europe and the US.” Commenting on the future, both Ms. Cannon and Mr. O’Connell say that Pall will continue to do what it does best: leverage opportunities across industries and geographies. “There are some exciting technological developments,” adds Ms. Cannon. “A couple of years ago we bought French company BioSepra, a specialist in chromatography. BioSepra products really complement our current technology portfolio in that they expand our offering to include sorbents.” The BioSepra line of chromatography resins are said to greatly simplify protein purification and fractionation. These broad lines of chromatography products exhibit superior performance and are useful for affinity, ion exchange, size exclusion and hydrophobic interaction (HCIC) chromatography. Unique mixed-mode BioSepra products also provide solutions to current sample preparation challenges such as detergent removal and antibody purification. “Chromatography continues to be an essential technology for the purification of biomolecules, and that’s the essential first step in product development in biotech,” adds Ms. Cannon. Mr. O’Connell concludes that the future looks very positive for Pall. “We will continue with our total fluid management approach, focusing on sustainable, profitable growth.” top - home