Life Science Tools & Diagnostics: Expert's Latest Views on Cloud Labs

Research evidence excerpt

Life Science Tools & Diagnostics: Expert's Latest Views on Cloud Labs

Idea

June 23, 2026 06:50 PM GMT

Morgan Stanley & Co. LLCMLife Science Tools & Diagnostics | North America Kallum L Titchmarsh

Equity Analyst

Expert's Latest Views on Cloud Kallum.Titchmarsh@morganstanley.comJakob Dodd +1 212 761-2351

Research Associate

Jakob.Dodd@morganstanley.com +1 212 761-0797

Labs Jason Lai

Jason.Lai@morganstanley.com +1 212 761-4848

Our recent call with the CEO of a leading cloud lab highlighted

Life Science Tools & Diagnostics

this small but scaling model for wet lab research. North America

Industry View In-Line

Key Takeaways

Customer base is almost entirely top 10-20 pharma companies today, with a

focus on later stage development and quality testing.

Value prop comes from 24/7 operations, algorithmic repeatability, and high

instrument utilization driving cost savings.

Minimal disruption to CRO and instrument OEM business models today, but

CROs may look to compete down the line.

Business model focused on big pharma customers today: Our expert described

cloud labs as a foundry model applied to wet lab research, i.e. scientists design

experiments with a software API and the protocol is executed algorithmically in a

central facility via a combination of automated and manual steps. Today, customers

are primarily comprised of the top 10-20 pharma companies (following a strategic

deprioritization of consumer-products, semis, and academic accounts). The vast

majority of work is sample preparation and feeding analytical instruments (such as

chromatography / mass spec), and some nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR).

Vendor / instrument exposure varies by experiment type: TMO, A, and WAT

instruments are preferred for chromatography, A and WAT for mass spec, and BRKR