Agilent Technologies Introduces New Mass Spectrometer Product Line, Expects to Double Market Share in LC/MS; Company Announces First Triple Quadrupole and Q-TOF Mass Specs

Business Wire, Jan 30, 2006

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:A) today announced introduction of an entire portfolio of chromatography-based mass spectrometry (LC/MS) systems that is expected to nearly double its LC/MS market share by 2008. The new Agilent 6000 Series LC/MS portfolio is expected to set a new standard in price-performance, reliability and ease-of-use that will transform productivity in the laboratory.

The Agilent 6000 Series will include five classes of instruments, including the company's first triple quadrupole (triple quad) and quadrupole time-of-flight (Q-TOF) mass spectrometers. With these additional instruments, Agilent now will be able to address nearly 70 percent of the estimated $1.3 billion LC/MS instrument market -- more than double its current market opportunity. The 6000 Series also includes improved versions of Agilent's single quadrupole, ion trap and time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometers.

"We are applying the same strategy to succeed in the LC/MS market that we used to become a leader in gas-chromatography/mass spectrometry," said Chris van Ingen, president of Agilent's Life Science and Chemical Analysis business. "We are introducing products that match or exceed the highest performance in the industry, while also providing a level of reliability and ease-of-use that will make customers' work easier, increase their productivity and expand the breadth of applications for which they can use each product."

"The complexity of mass spectrometers has made them more difficult to use and less reliable than other key analytical instruments, such as chromatographs," said Taia Ergueta, general manager of Agilent's LC/MS business. "Agilent has applied its expertise in engineering robust instrumentation to make significant improvements in product quality and usability. These new products will offer some exciting functionality that should set a new standard in price-performance and reliability. We believe that improvements in this area will attract not only existing mass spectrometry users, but open the gates to a whole new generation of scientists and technicians."

Each of the new LC/MS instruments includes the following three features that are unique to Agilent:

--Agilent's proprietary autotune technology

Instruments require calibration appropriate to the sample being analyzed. With competing products, customers either calibrate the instrument manually or call a service technician, typically decreasing either the data quality or utility/uptime of the instrument. Agilent's autotune technology automatically calibrates the instrument with the click of the mouse, optimizing for sensitivity and mass accuracy. It has the potential to repeatedly save customers hours of tedious work or delay.

--Compatibility with Agilent's multimode source and HPLC-Chip technology

All Agilent 6000 Series mass spectrometers will be compatible with 1) the Agilent multi-mode ion source, the first and only technology capable of simultaneously operating electrospray ionization (ESI) and atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI), saving repetition of experiments; and 2) the Agilent HPLC-Chip/MS system, which replaces traditional columns with a credit-card-sized chip that eliminates 50 percent of the fittings and connections typically required in an LC/MS system, significantly simplifying workflow and increasing sensitivity and reliability.

--Integrated LC and MS software for instrument control and data analysis

Each instrument comes with integrated LC and MS software for a single point of instrument control and data analysis. In conjunction with these products, Agilent is introducing a range of application-specific software programs that allow researchers to quickly get answers to the real problems they are trying to solve. All use the most modern, industry-standard development tools and a new ".Net"-based MS data processing environment.

Application-specific software and other workflow elements complement these new mass spectrometers to enable new and enhanced results in a broad range of life science and applied markets.

About the Products

Mass spectrometry is used to identify organic compounds and contaminants through analysis of their ion fragments. It is used in food safety, environmental testing, forensics and proteomics research, as well as drug discovery, development and manufacturing QA/QC.

The Agilent 6410 Triple Quadrupole provides femtogram level sensitivity -- comparable to the most expensive instruments of this class -- along with Agilent reliability and a 30 to 50 percent lower price. It is used primarily for environmental, food safety, forensics and pharmaceutical applications.

The Agilent 6510 Q-TOF provides superior analytical performance compared with the most expensive high-performance Q-TOF instruments. It simultaneously offers attomole sensitivity, routine mass accuracy better than 3 ppm, and 3.5 orders of magnitude in-spectra dynamic range. It enables fast data acquisition at 20 spectra/second or 1 MS and 5 MS/MS per second in data-dependent mode. The Agilent Q-TOF is expected to become the new instrument of choice for proteomics laboratories.