The news is coming thick and fast for Qiagen. As the molecular diagnostics specialist announced its third-quarter earnings, it also revealed that its long-term chief executive, Thierry Bernard, will step down while also opening its wallet for a new acquisition.
In an unexpected move, Bernard will step down from his role and the company “after a successor is appointed.” He’s helmed Qiagen for six years.
The company gave no more details on Bernard’s exit, adding only that the supervisory board and the outgoing CEO have “agree[d] on timing for transition.” Bernard was in charge of Qiagen during its 2020 roller coaster that saw it almost bought out by Thermo Fisher for around $12.5 billion, before the deal collapsed that August after a shareholder rejection.
News of his departure on Nov. 4 comes amid Qiagen’s third-quarter financials, which saw sales up 6% to $533 million. The company also announced plans to complete a $500 million synthetic share repurchase in early January 2026.
The company, in a separate development, said it would be buying up Parse Biosciences. The Seattle company creates scalable, instrument-free solutions for single-cell research.
The deal comes in the form of an upfront payment of around $225 million in cash, with Parse equity holders eligible for additional milestone payments of up to $55 million “based on the achievement of targets over a multi-year period,” according to the release.
“The acquisition will significantly expand Qiagen’s Sample Technologies portfolio into the fast-growing single-cell sequencing market with highly scalable chemistry designed to power research involving up to millions and billions of cells,” the company said.
Parse is expected to bring in around $40 million in sales to Qiagen for the full year 2026, Qiagen said.
“Parse was founded to make single-cell sequencing accessible to any lab,” said Alex Rosenberg, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Parse, in a statement.
“As our team joins Qiagen, we want to accelerate that mission and extend the reach of our technology to more customers around the world. Qiagen’s strong commitment to Sample technologies and its global infrastructure make it an ideal partner for our next stage of growth.”
Wan Nurhayati, equity analyst at CFRA Research on Qiagen, said in a note to clients that while an "eventful Q3", the CEO's "announced departure creates management uncertainty, in our view, on top of ongoing macroeconomic risks, particularly relating to tariffs."
Qiagen was down 3% Tuesday, Nov. 4 on the updates.