Biotage Divests Biosystems Division to QIAGEN

Biotage Divests Biosystems Division to QIAGEN

As a result of the Strategic Review of Biotage's entire operations, launched in
October 2007, the Board of Biotage AB (“Biotage”) has concluded to divest the
Biosystems division (“Biosystems”) and the shares in Corbett Life Science Pty
Ltd (“Corbett”) to QIAGEN. The transaction is expected to close on October 2,
2008. Biotage will focus its future activities on the Discovery Chemistry
division with attention to improving the operating margin, creating organic
growth and acquire complementary products or businesses. 


QIAGEN will acquire the assets of Biosystems and Biotage's shares held in
Corbett (17.5%), for an initial purchase price of US$ 53m. In addition, provided
that certain performance and milestone criteria are met, up to maximum US$ 7m
can further be paid to Biotage by QIAGEN over a period ending 31 December 2012.
QIAGEN will offer employment to the entire staff related to Biosystems.

After adjustment for inter alia certain liabilities that QIAGEN will take over
at closing, Biotage will receive a net cash of approximately US$ 50m. The
capital gain for the transaction for Biotage is expected to be approximately SEK
220m before taxes. 

Biosystems (as a primary segment) generated revenues of SEK 101.2m (out of
Biotage's total of SEK 481.7m) and an operating profit of SEK 28.1m (out of
Biotage's total of SEK 42.4m) in the 12 months ended 30th June 2008. In
addition, Biotage received dividends from Corbett of SEK 7.6m during the same
period.

Biotage will act as a distributor for QIAGEN during the fourth quarter of 2008.
The net result for Biotage from this distribution agreement is expected to be
marginal. Biotage will also in accordance with a separate “transfer service
agreement” provide certain administrative services to QIAGEN for the next twelve
months.

The Board is very pleased to have concluded the deal with QIAGEN. The proceeds
from this transaction will allow Biotage to further enhance and develop the
Discovery Chemistry division. Biotage envisage broadening its current product
offering into new applications. Such areas of interest include environmental and
food analysis. Biotage also believe strongly in the possibilities of further
developing and broadening its microwave technologies for new applications. The
Strategic Review process has further given indications of possibilities to
venture into new areas, which have stronger synergies with the Discovery
Chemistry division than the now divested Biosystems division. The overall target
will be to enhance the top line growth, organically as well as through
acquisitions while maintaining a healthy operating profit. 

Biosystems has gained strong technology and productivity momentum in recent
years. A new instrument platform was launched late in Q1 of 2008 which allowed
expanding the business into the diagnostic field, a field where Biotage
historically has not been active. Given the strategic focus on its Discovery
Chemistry business, Biotage decided to partner with QIAGEN, who has the
expertise, capabilities and resources to fully exploit the potential of the
Pyrosequencing technology by leveraging it into the market for in vitro
diagnostics. 
”The fit with QIAGEN is extra ordinary and will be very beneficial for customers
of both companies.'' Torben Jørgensen, CEO of Biotage said. ”QIAGEN has an
excellent molecular assay and also epigenetic portfolios which perfectly fits
together with our PyroMark instruments. Many of our customers are QIAGEN
customers as well. In addition, QIAGEN's technology leadership in molecular
sample and assay technologies, its global reach and extensive marketing,
combined with strong relationships with researchers and leading laboratories
around the world, bring exciting opportunities for Biosystems. QIAGEN is the
ideal partner to take the Biosystems business to the next level and to fully
exploit the Pyrosequencing technology.'' 

”Pyrosequencing technologies are excellent complements to our portfolio of
current and future molecular testing solutions, including our modular processing
platform QIAsymphony”, said Peer Schatz, CEO of QIAGEN. “We are proud to offer
our customers in molecular diagnostics, applied testing, pharma and academic
research 'sample to result' solutions which address further, significant
information needs. Our ‘sample to result' solutions now span
qualitative/endpoint PCR, multiplex technologies, capillary electrophoresis as
well as quantitative and high resolution sequence-based analysis. With
Pyrosequencing, we are adding nothing less but a proven Gold Standard for
high-resolution sequence detection and quantification which, due to its high
level of reliability, accuracy, ease-of-use and cost-efficiency is widely used
in today's next generation sequencing technologies. As such, QIAGEN is not only
gaining financial interest and technological leadership in a core next
generation sequencing technology, but is also addressing significant current and
future needs in our core markets for quantitative, high-resolution sequence
analyses of short-medium stretches.”
Greenhill & Co is advising Biotage in relation to the Strategic Review. 



Contact:								
Torben Jörgensen, President and CEO				
Tel: +46 707 49 05 84, torben.jorgensen@eu.biotage.com

About Biosystems
Biosystems is best known for having pioneered the Pyrosequencing® technology,
which has become a fundamental technology in next-generation sequencing. The
Pyrosequencing technology is a patented assay technology that reads
DNA-sequences up to 100 base pairs in real time. This technology can be used to
read short stretches of DNA to add additional information to information
generated by PCR-based assays.
Biosystems automated the use of the Pyrosequencing technology with the
development of PyroMarkTM instrumentation, the world's first real-time
sequencing detection system. The system is considered to offer significant
advantages over other technologies. Pyrosequencing technology provides complex
and detailed information for molecular testing. The technology offers a
quantifiable, full sequence resolution analysis down to the level of a single
base-pair. It therefore allows detection not only of known but even of unknown
mutations and offers absolute and direct quantification of methylation patterns.

In 2003 Biotage licensed the rights to massively parallel formats to Roche/454.
Systems for ultra high-throughput such as Roche/454's whole genome sequencing
platform FLX, for instance, are based on Pyrosequencing technology.
During the recent years Biotage has accomplished a complete turnaround of the
Biosystems business. A new instrument platform was launched late in Q1 of 2008.
This platform is intended to allow for expansion into the diagnostic field, a
field where Biotage historically has not been active.
During 2007, Biosystems had net sales of SEK 98,8m and an operating profit of
SEK 26,2m.

About Biotage
Biotage is a global company active in life science research with strong
technologies, a broad range of operations and a long-term view of the market.
The company offers solutions, knowledge and experience in the areas of genetic
analysis and medicinal chemistry. In 2005 business and products from the company
Argonaut were acquired, further strengthening the product range in medicinal
chemistry. The customers include the worlds top 30 pharma companies, the worlds
top 20 biotech companies, and leading academic institutes. The company is
headquartered in Uppsala and has subsidiaries in the U.S., Japan, UK, Germany
and several other European countries. Biotage has 336 employees and had sales of
SEK 496m in 2007. Biotage is listed on the OMX Nordic stock exchange. Website:
www.biotage.com

About QIAGEN
QIAGEN N.V., a Netherlands holding company, is the leading global provider of
sample and assay technologies. Sample technologies are used to isolate and
process DNA, RNA and proteins from biological samples such as blood or tissue.
Assay technologies are used to make such isolated biomolecules visible. QIAGEN
has developed and markets more than 500 sample and assay products as well as
automated solutions for such consumables. The company provides its products to
molecular diagnostics laboratories, academic researchers, pharmaceutical and
biotechnology companies, and applied testing customers for purposes such as
forensics, animal or food testing and pharmaceutical process control. QIAGEN's
assay technologies include one of the broadest panels of molecular diagnostic
tests available worldwide. This panel includes the only FDA-approved test for
human papillomavirus (HPV), the primary cause of cervical cancer. QIAGEN employs
more than 2,800 people in over 30 locations worldwide. Further information about
QIAGEN can be found at http://www.qiagen.com/.