Laboratory equipment and consumables

What public buyers purchase

Public laboratories buy across a wide range. Universities and research institutes equip teaching and research labs; hospital pathology and microbiology departments run analysers every day; and public health, food-safety, environmental and forensic laboratories test samples for regulators and courts. Alongside the instruments they use a steady flow of pipette tips, tubes, glassware, gloves, chemicals and reagents, and they fit out new buildings with benching and fume cupboards.

In the Common Procurement Vocabulary, instruments sit under 38000000 Laboratory, optical and precision equipments (excl. glasses), with 38430000 Detection and analysis apparatus, 38434000 Analysers and 38510000 Microscopes among the codes buyers use most, and 42931100 Laboratory centrifuges and accessories under machinery. Consumables are coded 33696500 Laboratory reagents and 33793000 Laboratory glassware, and fit-outs 39180000 Laboratory furniture. Installation can be tendered separately under 51430000 Installation services of laboratory equipment.

Consumables are usually bought through framework agreements and purchasing consortia. In England, the North Eastern Universities Purchasing Consortium (NEUPC) runs more than 20 laboratory agreements covering chemicals, consumables, life-science reagents and kits, and minor and high-value laboratory equipment for the higher-education sector. In France, UGAP, the national central purchasing body, has a laboratory range covering analysers and biology products, basic equipment, scientific consumables and reagents. Larger instruments are more often tendered one by one, frequently with installation, training and maintenance in the same contract.

How distribution works

Two kinds of company win most of this business. Broad laboratory supply dealers run catalogues from many manufacturers, deliver to the bench and hold framework lots for consumables and general equipment. Specialist distributors, often exclusive to one manufacturer in a territory, sell and service analytical instruments: they demonstrate, install and qualify the instrument, train users and employ engineers who can repair it. Large instrument makers often sell direct through local subsidiaries; small and mid-sized manufacturers usually work through one of the two routes above.

For a manufacturer entering a new country, the question is which of these companies already wins your category there. Contract award notices on TED name the winner and carry the CPV code, so the dealer holding a university group's consumables framework, or the distributor that supplied centrifuges to several regional hospitals, is visible from the public record. Cresques builds a market from a country and a set of categories and shows that evidence; if you are unsure which codes fit your range, it can read your brochure or website and suggest them. It does not help you bid.

What distributors expect

Laboratory distributors put their name on the installation and the service, so their first questions are about regulation and support:

• A clear answer on whether your product is an in vitro diagnostic device. Regulation (EU) 2017/746 (IVDR) has applied since 26 May 2022. It does not cover products for general laboratory use or research-use-only products unless the manufacturer specifically intends them for in vitro diagnostic examination. For IVDs, the distributor will ask for the EU declaration of conformity, any notified-body certificate and, if you are outside the EU, the name of your sole authorised representative.
• For legacy IVDs, the timetable. Regulation (EU) 2024/1860 lets devices that were self-certified under the old directive, but now need a notified body, stay on the market under conditions until 31 December 2027 (class D), 31 December 2028 (class C) or 31 December 2029 (class B and sterile class A). It also requires manufacturers to warn customers, normally at least six months ahead, when an interruption or discontinuation of supply could seriously harm patients or public health.
• Chemical documentation for reagents, buffers and kits: classification and labelling under the CLP Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008, and a safety data sheet under REACH, Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006, supplied in an official language of the country where the product is placed on the market.
• CE marking for instruments under the Low Voltage Directive 2014/35/EU and the EMC Directive 2014/30/EU, and, where an instrument counts as machinery, under the machinery rules: the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC is replaced by the Machinery Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 from 20 January 2027. All electrical laboratory equipment, centrifuges included, has been within the RoHS Directive 2011/65/EU since 22 July 2019 (monitoring and control instruments in category 9, in vitro diagnostics in category 8, others in category 11), unless an Article 2(4) exclusion applies.
• Service and calibration. Under the good laboratory practice principles annexed to Directive 2004/10/EC, apparatus used in a study should be periodically inspected, cleaned, maintained and calibrated according to standard operating procedures, with records kept and calibration traceable to national or international standards where appropriate. A distributor serving such labs will want service manuals, engineer training, spare parts in the country and calibration documents it can hand to the customer.
• Application support: a demonstration unit or access to one, application specialists who can run customer samples, and continuity of supply for the consumables an instrument depends on.

Markets to start with

France. Universities, hospital groups and public research organisations, with UGAP's laboratory range as a national route once a product is referenced. B2B e-mail to a company's generic address (info@, contact@) needs no consent under CNIL guidance, so a first approach by e-mail is workable; a named professional address needs more (see France).

Germany. University, hospital and public research laboratories, served by specialist dealers and manufacturers' subsidiaries. E-mail advertising without prior express consent is unlawful, so plan on letters, trade fairs and introductions.

UK and Ireland. Universities buy through purchasing consortia such as NEUPC, and the UK publishes above-threshold awards on Find a Tender rather than TED. For IVDs, Great Britain runs its own regime: devices must be registered with the MHRA, a manufacturer outside the UK needs a UK Responsible Person, and IVDR-compliant CE-marked IVDs can be placed on the GB market until 30 June 2030. Unsolicited e-mail to companies is allowed if you identify yourself and give an opt-out. Ireland stays inside the EU regime, so its awards appear on TED.

Netherlands. Unsolicited commercial e-mail requires prior consent, including for businesses, unless the company has published an address specifically for receiving such offers, so the first contact is by post, at a fair or through an introduction.

Nordics. Sweden, Finland and Denmark publish on TED as EU members and Norway does so through the EEA. Sweden and Finland allow e-mail to companies if every message offers an opt-out; Norway allows it to a company's general address but not to an employee's own; Denmark requires prior consent, including for businesses.