OEM In The Antibody Industry

Introduction: What is OEM?

Definition:  OEMs   (original equipment manufacturer)  are manufacturers who resell another company's product under their own name and branding.

OEM is common practice in many industries. It is particularly prevalent in the antibody industry due to antibody companies needing to establish a huge catalog very quickly.

This article identifies the reproducibility problems associated with antibody OEM and it's toll on the industry's reliability. Proteintech prides itself on being a direct manufacturer, manufacturing and validating all it's own products in-house, selling only to the researcher or via approved Proteintech distributors.

'OEM in'

OEM in’ means that antibody companies source their antibodies from small contract labs. The lab will supply several antibody companies at the same time, and an antibody company will use several labs at once. This means that each antibody the lab produces can be sold under many different brand names, under many different catalog numbers.

'OEM out'

This is where brands sell products to each other, even if they manufacture them. This increases the chances that the same product can bought under different brands, under different catalog numbers.

Why it matters to you

What does antibody OEM look like? 

Ab Company 1: Poly16ab	Ab Company 2: abx-569	Ab Company 3: x-2230-ab

Often, if you view several antibodies from several different companies, you can see that the validation images are the same or very similar. A product sold under a certain brand is not necessarily manufactured by that company.

How OEM hurts scientists

OEMS = No accountability Who do you blame for inadequate validation or poor specificity?

A lottery for researchers You can purchase the same bad antibody from several different OEMs without even knowing.

There is another way : Direct  Manufacturer 

Why Manufacturer - Direct benefits the scientists

Accountability If accountability goes directly from the manufacturerto the scientist, the onus is on the manufacturer.

Reproducibility A direct manufacturer can provide a consistent supply of antibodies with a high-level of consistency.

Transparency You know where your antibodies are produced.