I'd also like to understand a bit about vendor usage. The last interview I conducted was with someone from a smaller research laboratory who used only Waters for all his instruments. He mentioned that larger organizations often use multiple vendors. I wanted to get your perspective on this. Why would this be?

My vision is different. I work for several major pharmaceutical companies, such as AstraZeneca, a UK company. And you know, Bristol Meyers Squibb, BMS. That's not true for each of these companies. At AstraZeneca, it's mainly Agilent. At AbbVie, it's mainly Agilent, too. At BMS it's mainly Waters. The reason I said 'mainly' is because from an industrial perspective, it's easier to manage. The major reason is that chromatography systems involve complex software which is difficult to learn. When a company purchases an instrument, they also purchase the software and spend a lot of time training on both. Once the lab is comfortable using it, it's very difficult for the same group of scientists to learn another software. That's the main reason.