Danaher (NYSE:DHR) President and CEO Julie Sawyer Montgomery said the company is aiming for faster core growth and market share gains through stronger commercial execution, innovation and acquisitions, as it pursues a leadership position in life sciences and diagnostics.
Speaking at a UBS conference, Montgomery said Danaher is currently growing at a mid-single-digit rate excluding respiratory products and believes it can grow faster. She pointed to demand for biologics, artificial intelligence in drug discovery and emerging blood-based tests for Alzheimer’s disease as potential long-term drivers.
Montgomery also wants Danaher’s operating companies to work more closely together when selling to customers. In diagnostics, she said, that approach has already created hundreds of millions of dollars in incremental opportunities.
Acquisitions and AI investment
Mergers and acquisitions remain Danaher’s capital-allocation priority, Montgomery said. She is looking for businesses that can offer differentiated growth, benefit from the Danaher Business System and help other Danaher companies grow. She said the company would remain disciplined when potential deals do not meet those criteria.
Montgomery cited Masimo and StatLab as promising additions. At Masimo, she said an initial improvement exercise increased productivity in one process by more than 50% while using 50% fewer resources.
On AI, Montgomery said it is too early to quantify the opportunity in autonomous science and drug discovery. Danaher is investing in the area, including through its first autonomous laboratory and partnerships with Anthropic and NVIDIA. She said the lab, housed at Abcam and focused on antibodies, increases Abcam’s productivity eightfold.
Cytiva outlook and reshoring
Montgomery reiterated her view that Cytiva, Danaher’s bioprocessing business, can sustain high-single-digit growth over the long term. She cited biologics, biosimilars, manufacturing reshoring and more advanced therapeutic modalities as supporting demand.
She said Danaher is confident Cytiva is not losing market share, based in part on its position in existing commercial therapies and its success in winning specifications for new products. Cytiva is specified into about 90% of monoclonal antibody volume, she said, a position that could help it benefit as biosimilars expand access to biologic medicines.
Danaher estimates reshoring represents a $1 billion incremental market opportunity, primarily for bioprocessing equipment and, to a lesser extent, life sciences instruments. Montgomery said some orders for expansions of existing facilities are appearing in the order book, but the revenue opportunity is more likely to emerge in 2028 and beyond.
Separately, she said Cytiva’s mid-teens equipment order growth in the third quarter was building backlog and should benefit 2027. Orders generally convert to revenue over nine to 12 months, she said.
Life sciences and China
In life sciences, Montgomery said pharma and biopharma markets were improving, while academic and government demand remained below historical levels despite modest sequential improvement. She highlighted high-single-digit growth at SCIEX in the latest quarter, as well as momentum at Beckman Coulter Life Sciences in liquid handling.
Abcam has grown for three consecutive quarters after Danaher added sales resources, Montgomery said. IDT has grown for two quarters, with particular strength in clinical applications. She said IDT is part of the solution for eight of the 10 largest players in minimal residual disease testing.
Danaher’s China business grew at a high-single-digit rate in the third quarter, including double-digit growth in biotechnology and mid-single-digit growth in life sciences, Montgomery said. Diagnostics also grew. She described China’s health care reforms as being in the “seventh inning of a nine-inning game,” with customers and channel partners gaining confidence as policies become clearer.
Diagnostics growth drivers
In diagnostics, Montgomery highlighted the full U.S. launch of Beckman Coulter’s DxI 9000 with its associated assays and development of a neurodegenerative testing portfolio. She also said Cepheid was gaining share and growing at a double-digit rate outside respiratory products, a pace she believes can continue as new assays launch.
Masimo delivered high-single-digit growth in the third quarter and year to date, she said. Danaher is pursuing cost and commercial synergies, including opportunities involving Radiometer, while seeking to reinvest in commercial execution and innovation.
Over the next five years, Montgomery said investors should judge the strategy by higher core growth, clear share gains and their contribution to shareholder value, alongside competitive wins, innovation and acquisitions.
About Danaher (NYSE:DHR)
Danaher is a global science and technology company that develops and supplies products and services for biotechnology, life sciences, and diagnostics markets. Its offerings include instruments, reagents, consumables, software, and services used in research, drug development and manufacturing, and clinical testing.
The company’s businesses include well-known brands such as Cytiva and Pall in bioprocessing and filtration, Beckman Coulter in laboratory and clinical diagnostics, Cepheid in molecular diagnostics, and Leica Microsystems in microscopy.
