(Reuters) -Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc’s upbeat first-quarter sales were overshadowed by soft demand in its life sciences unit, sending the medical equipment maker’s shares down 4% in premarket trading on Wednesday.
Sales in its life sciences unit, which makes tools and compounds used to make therapeutics and vaccines, came in at $2.61 billion, missing analysts’ average estimate of $2.92 billion.
The company reported weak life sciences segment revenue a day after rival Danaher Corp trimmed its annual sales growth forecast and flagged weak demand for its bioprocessing tools and services as the sector grapples with a funding crunch.
Thermo Fisher has benefited from demand for lab equipment including COVID-19 testing tools during the pandemic years, but with the U.S. public health emergency status set to expire next month, the company’s COVID-related business faces uncertainties.
However, strong sales in its largest unit which provides contract manufacturing services helped drive better-than-expected total revenue of $10.71 billion. Analysts were expecting overall sales of $10.67 billion.
Excluding items, Thermo Fisher reported earnings of $5.03 per share in the quarter, in-line with Wall Street estimates.
The company said it would provide updates on its annual forecast in its earnings conference call.
(Reporting by Bhanvi Satija and Mariam Sunny in BengaluruEditing by Vinay Dwivedi)
