We are a leading provider of products, solutions and services for a wide range of customers, including academic, research and diagnostic labs, biotech and pharmaceutical companies, as well as the industrial sector. Together with our customers, our purpose is to impact life and health with science.
Across our Life Science business sector, we collaborate with the global scientific community to drive innovation. We remain focused on executing our strategy and reinforcing our position as a diversified life science company through our three business units. Our strategy is based on three focus areas – expanding portfolio leadership, enhancing customer experience and driving operational excellence – positioning us to be more agile in a dynamic market environment.
To strengthen customer experience, we announced an updated go-to-market strategy in October 2025, aimed at transforming our three business units to accelerate growth and better align our approach with specific customer needs. The updated model came into effect on January 1, 2026. Process Solutions continues to provide pharma and biotech manufacturers with embedded solutions that support critical biopharmaceutical processes. Our newly established Advanced Solutions business unit offers specialized products and services delivered through high-touch commercial models, such as contract testing services as well as diagnostic and regulated materials. Our new Discovery Solutions business unit has a digital-first focus for fast, convenient access to high-quality biology and chemistry catalog products.
Our previous business unit structure – with Science & Lab Solutions, Process Solutions and Life Science Services – will continue to be reflected in this Combined Management Report.
Our progress is driven by close collaboration with customers to advance scientific discovery and get new therapies off the ground faster. From novel modalities such as antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and gene therapies to cutting-edge research tools and next-generation bioprocessing technologies, we enable breakthroughs through our deep technical expertise and broad capabilities. By continuously innovating across materials, tools and digital solutions, we help scientists accelerate progress from early research to large-scale manufacturing.
To accomplish this, more than 1,700 scientists in research and development within Life Science across twelve sites worldwide focus on strengthening our core portfolio and developing innovations. Their work fuels a steady new product development and innovation pipeline that supports our customers’ work from early discovery to manufacturing.
We are strategically expanding partnerships with industry and academia to accelerate scientific discoveries and support the global scientific community. Building on our 90-year collaboration with Washington University in St. Louis, USA, in July 2025 we signed a memorandum of understanding to support joint research initiatives, technology scouting and research enablement, with an emphasis on sustainable and socially responsible scientific progress.
In September 2025, we deepened our strategic partnership with Siemens AG, Germany, (Siemens), through which we aim to deliver end-to-end digital workflows from drug discovery to manufacturing, combining our Life Science product portfolio and Siemens’ digital ecosystem.
In fiscal 2025, Life Science generated 42% of Group sales and 40% of EBITDA pre (excluding Corporate and Other). Europe and North America generated 71% of Life Science’s sales in 2025; Asia-Pacific and Latin America accounted for 28% of sales.
Science & Lab Solutions
The Science & Lab Solutions business unit serves customers across the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, public authorities, scientific institutions and other industrial markets. Customers can access a broad portfolio including reagents, consumables, devices, instruments, software, and services for research, production and testing in addition to lab water instruments, microbiology and biomonitoring products, test assays, analytical reagents, and flow cytometry kits and instruments.
In January 2025, we announced the closing of the acquisition of Hub Organoids Holding B.V., Netherlands, (Hub Organoids), enhancing our position in next-generation biology. Hub Organoids’ proprietary technology enables physiologically relevant 3D human models that can improve drug discovery and disease modeling as well as reducing the reliance on animal testing.
Early in 2025, we entered into a multi-year partnership with Opentrons Labworks Inc., USA, (Opentrons), to bring automation to the lab bench. Together, we aim to improve reproducibility and scalability of laboratory experiments by offering validated robotic protocols across our assay portfolio. Several months after signing the agreement, we launched the first product in July 2025. The AAW™ Workstation, powered by Opentrons, automates routine laboratory experiments previously performed manually and expands our offering in lab automation.
In May 2025, we announced a strategic partnership with Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre, Belgium, (imec), a leading research and innovation hub in nanoelectronics and digital technologies, to develop an advanced microphysiological systems platform. This collaboration aims to make drug discovery and development more efficient by increasing the predictive validity of next-generation preclinical models and progressively reducing the reliance on animal testing.
To further strengthen our leadership in next-generation biology, we also announced a strategic partnership with global life science manufacturer Promega Corporation, USA, in October 2025 to co-develop novel technologies that advance drug screening and discovery.
Process Solutions
The Process Solutions business unit supports biotech and pharma customers that focus on developing and manufacturing traditional and novel therapies with its comprehensive portfolio of products and services, including filtration devices, chromatography resins, single-use systems, process chemicals, and excipients for bioprocessing.
In 2025, we received notable industry recognition for our Process Solutions products. The Mobius® ADC Reactor secured the “Best in Show Award” at INTERPHEX for its innovative design as the first scalable single-use mixer for manufacturing ADCs, a growing class of targeted cancer therapies. We also received the “Innovation Award” from The Medicine Maker for our mPredict™ Co-Crystal Prediction Service, a platform that uses predictive modeling to support faster, data-driven decisions in bioprocessing.
Within our Process Solutions business, we inaugurated our manufacturing facility in Blarney Business Park, Cork, Ireland, in September 2025. With this investment of around € 150 million, we expanded our filter manufacturing capacities. The site is part of Life Science’s larger € 440 million investment in Ireland and strengthens the company’s in-region-for-region supply resilience. It is also our first manufacturing facility designed to be Scope 1 and 2 climate neutral, marking a key milestone in our ambition to achieve climate neutrality by 2040.
In October 2025, we announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire the chromatography business of JSR Corporation, Japan, a leader in contract development and manufacturing alongside bioprocessing solutions. Once completed, the acquisition will expand our downstream processing portfolio with advanced protein A chromatography capabilities, supporting more efficient and scalable production of biopharmaceutical therapies, including monoclonal antibodies. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2026, subject to regulatory approval and the fulfillment of other customary closing conditions.
Life Science Services
The Life Science Services business unit supports customers in drug development and manufactures novel modalities for biotech and pharmaceutical customers, including high-potency active pharmaceutical ingredients, ADCs and viral and gene therapy products. With our fully integrated offering of contract development, manufacturing and testing services, we support customers from preclinical phases to commercialization. In 2025, we advanced the use of next-generation sequencing testing technologies to support viral clearance for adeno-associated gene therapy development.