We saw broad-based strength across the portfolio, which helped us deliver over 30% core revenue growth, more than 70% adjusted earnings-per-share growth and outstanding free cash flow generation.
Our sales were $7.2 billion and we delivered core revenue growth of 31.5% with strong contributions from all three of our reporting segment.
Geographically, high growth markets grew nearly 35% and developed markets were up more than 25%.
Revenue in each of our three largest markets, North America, Western Europe and China was up 30% or more in the quarter.
Our gross profit margin increased by 710 basis points to 60.9% primarily due to higher sales volumes, the favorable impact of higher margin product mix and the impact of prior year purchase accounting adjustments related to the Cytiva acquisition that did not repeat in 2021.
Our operating profit margin increased to 27.8% including 775 basis points of core operating margin expansion, primarily as a result of higher gross margin and continued lower operating expense as travel and other related costs remains below pre-pandemic levels.
Adjusted diluted net earnings per common share of $2.46 were up 71% compared to 2020.
We generated $1.8 billion of free cash flow in the quarter, up over 40% year-over-year.
We anticipate Aldevron will be accretive to Danaher on multiple levels as we expect the business to generate $500 million of revenue in 2022, with more than 20% annual revenue growth and a strong margin profile.
One of our core values at Danaher is innovation defines our future and we have made a significant commitment toward our research and development effort increasing our research and development spend by more than 30% year-over-year to bring more impactful solutions to our customers.
At SCIEX we launched ZenoTOF 7600, a high resolution accurate mass spectrometry system that enables scientists to identify, characterize and quantify molecules at previously undetectable level, helping to advance the development of new biotherapeutics and precision diagnostics.
At Beckman Coulter Diagnostics, we recently introduced the DxA 5000 Fit a compact automation solution designed for small and mid-sized laboratories that reduces up to 80% of the manual steps typically required for sample preparation.
We expect our total capital expenditures across Danaher to be approximately $1.5 billion in 2021 as we continue to invest in supportive of our customers' needs today and well into the future.
Life Science's reported revenue increased 41.5% with core revenue up 35%.
This growth was broad based with most of our major businesses in the platform, delivering 30% or better core growth.
We continue to see strong demand for our bioprocessing solutions with combined core revenue growth of more than 40% at Cytiva and Pall Biotech.
COVID related vaccine and therapeutic revenues were consistent with the first quarter and exceeded $1 billion over the first 6 months of the year.
We've established a new company with a new brand name added more than 1500 associates and made substantial progress in the transition to Danaher, all while maintaining world-class support of our customers, significantly ramping production capacity and growing revenues by more than 50%.
Moving to Diagnostics, reported revenue was up 40.5% and core revenue grew 37% led by more than 50% core growth at Cepheid.
Beckman Diagnostics and Leica Biosystems each grew more than 30% as patient volumes and clinical diagnostic activity approached pre-pandemic levels around the world.
In respiratory testing, we believe we continued to gain market share as expanded manufacturing capacity enabled the team to produce and ship approximately 14 million cartridges in the quarter.
As expected COVID-only test accounted for approximately 80% of these shipments while our 4 in 1 combination test for COVID-19 Flu-A, Flu-B and RSV represented approximately 20%.
This broad-based performance across Cepheid was driven by the team's thoughtful installed base expansion over the last 15 months and as evidence of the significant value, Cepheid provides to clinician with the unique combination of fast, accurate lab-quality results and the best-in-class, easy to use workflow at the point of care.
Moving to our Environmental and Applied Solutions segment, reported revenue grew 15.5% and core revenue was up 13%.
Revenue growth accelerated across both platforms with water quality up high single-digits and product identification up approximately 20% in the quarter.
In product identification Videojet was up mid-teen and our packaging and color management businesses were up more than 25% in the quarter.
Today, there are over 1,500 monoclonal antibody-based therapies in development globally, which is more than 50% increase from just 5 years ago.
We also see over 1,000 gene therapy candidates in development today, a 10-fold increase over the last several years as these technologies mature and therapies gain regulatory approval.
We expect to recognize $2 billion in COVID related vaccine and therapeutic revenue in 2021 and anticipate entering 2022 with approximately $1.5 billion in COVID-related backlog.
Now, as I mentioned earlier we shipped approximately 14 million respiratory tests during the second quarter, up from 10 million shipped in the first quarter and we now expect to ship approximately 50 million tests in 2021.
Additionally, we expect to generate operating profit fall through of approximately 40% in the third quarter and for the remainder of 2021.
For the full year 2021, we now expect to deliver approximately 20% core revenue growth.
We anticipate that COVID related revenue tailwinds will be an approximately 10% contribution to the core revenue growth rate and in our base business we now expect that core revenue will be up 10% for the full year, an increase from our prior expectation of high single-digit.

Summary:
Our sales were $7.2 billion and we delivered core revenue growth of 31.5% with strong contributions from all three of our reporting segment.
Adjusted diluted net earnings per common share of $2.46 were up 71% compared to 2020.
We anticipate Aldevron will be accretive to Danaher on multiple levels as we expect the business to generate $500 million of revenue in 2022, with more than 20% annual revenue growth and a strong margin profile.
As expected COVID-only test accounted for approximately 80% of these shipments while our 4 in 1 combination test for COVID-19 Flu-A, Flu-B and RSV represented approximately 20%.
Revenue growth accelerated across both platforms with water quality up high single-digits and product identification up approximately 20% in the quarter.
For the full year 2021, we now expect to deliver approximately 20% core revenue growth.