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| In 2008, Sigma-Aldrich continued to enhance resources and capabilities that support growth in faster-growing economies. As the global markets continue to develop, our aim is to meet the rising demand for products and services through innovation and leadership. |
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| The new CompoZr™ platform of reagents enables researchers to target and manipulate the genome of living cells, resulting in cell lines or whole organisms with defined gene deletions, insertions or corrections. Zinc Finger Nuclease technology has the potential to alter the way research on living cells and organisms is conducted. |
Streamline the global supply chain
Process improvement continues to be deeply ingrained in the fabric of Sigma-Aldrich. We’ve initiated successful improvement programs at all levels and in all areas of our business, from supplier to customer. 2008 marked the seventh consecutive year that improvement efforts produced over $15 million in pre-tax benefits.
Our single largest process improvement program is the Global Supply Chain initiative, launched in 2007. This Company-wide initiative focuses on our procurement processes and internal operations to enhance our profitability and to ensure our customers have a seamless supply of products, delivered in the most efficient way. While savings were modest in 2008, efforts planned for 2009 include the implementation of additional functionality to streamline our procurement and inventory management activities and ensure outstanding, efficient customer service for our more than one million customers with approximately 130,000 products distributed worldwide. These efforts are expected to be a major contributor to profitability in 2009.
Continue Research Biotech focus
As part of our mission to make Sigma-Aldrich a place where life science researchers can access biological information and market-leading products to facilitate their quest to understand life processes, we leveraged our strong scientific capabilities to develop and launch a number of innovative and information-rich solutions for our customers. We believe merging information and innovative research tools can help customers develop new drugs and treatments that can save lives and improve the quality of life.
In 2008, we increased our selection of high quality antibody reagents through our Prestige Antibodies® program, adding more than 8,000 new antibodies. These materials help address one of the largest obstacles faced by the proteomics and cell biology research communities. Through the Atlas Antibodies program, researchers are able to better understand the functions of specific proteins.
At the same time, through our partnership with Sangamo BioSciences, Inc., Sigma-Aldrich introduced the breakthrough CompoZr™ Zinc Finger Nuclease (ZFN) technology for targeted genome editing. ZFN technology offers researchers the world’s first genome-editing tools to enable precise, permanent and heritable modification of the genome in living cells.
Through a collaboration with Ingenuity Systems, Inc., we launched the “Your Favorite Gene” search engine, which contains novel and proprietary biological information. With this data, scientists can not only search for their favorite gene, but also see biological information about their gene, disease research or pathway. We continue to leverage our comprehensive portfolio of products, services and information for life science researchers to help them answer important biological questions and foster scientific partnerships for now and the future.
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