Interim report January - September 2008

Interim report January - September 2008

•  Net sales in the third quarter amounted to 119.4 MSEK (111.9) and to 354.7
MSEK (361.9) in the period January - September 2008. At comparable exchange
rates net sales increased by 13 percent in the third quarter and by 5 percent in
the period January - September.

•  The operating result for the third quarter increased by 41 percent and
amounted to 13.1 MSEK (9.3). The operating result for the first nine months of
the year increased by 12 percent to 30.9 MSEK (27.6).

•  The result after tax amounted to 12.8 MSEK (11.2) in the third quarter and to
33.9 MSEK (56.5) in the period January - September. In the second quarter 2007
capitalization of deferred income taxes recoverable was made to the amount of
27.6 MSEK.

•  Earnings per share amounted to 0.14 SEK (0.13) in the third quarter and to
0.38 SEK (0.64) in the period January - September.

•  The cash flow from operating activities amounted to 20.2 MSEK (22.9) in the
third quarter and to 38.1 MSEK (21.2) the first nine months of the year.

•	On October 2, Qiagen acquired the assets in the Biosystems business area and
Biotage's shares in Corbett (17.5 percent) for an initial purchase sum of 53
MUSD. The capital gain for the divestment is expected to amount to 220 MSEK
before tax. Biotage has received cash payment amounting to approx. 360 MSEK for
the divested operations.

Comments from CEO Torben Jörgensen

In the third quarter much work was devoted to the sale of the Biosystems
business area to the German biotech company Qiagen. On October 1 the parties
finally agreed on all conditions to conclude the deal. The deal was closed on
October 2. The deal means that Qiagen acquires the assets and some liabilities
in the business area together with Biotage's shares in Corbett (17.5 percent)
for an initial purchase sum of 53 MUSD. Provided that certain sales targets are
met, additional purchase sums totaling a maximum of 7 MUSD will be paid to
Biotage during the period from Qiagen's taking possession of the operations up
to December 31, 2012. Qiagen takes over all Biosystems' employees.

This deal marks the end of the strategic evaluation work. Biotage will now
intensify its work with developing and strengthening the Discovery Chemistry
business area, with the aim of improving the operating margin, creating organic
growth and acquiring complementary products and businesses. The strategic
evaluation work has yielded a number of leads and contacts that will be pursued.

In the Biosystems business area the operations continued to develop favorably
with a 26 percent sales growth at comparable exchange rates. The launch of the
new PyroMark™ Q24 instrument has been successful and 15 instruments were sold
during the quarter. In total Biosystems sold 32 instruments in the third
quarter.

Discovery Chemistry  is much affected by the ongoing restructuring within the
major pharma companies. However, it is gratifying to note a 9 percent sales
growth at comparable exchange rates in the third quarter. The business area's
new introductions, the purification system Isolera and the new product area
SNAP, have developed successfully and were the main factors behind the growing
sales in the third quarter.

För further information, please contact:

Torben Jörgensen, President and CEO, phone: +46 707 49 05 84					
Mats-Olof Wallin, CFO, phone: +46 705 93 52 73

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 world's top 30 pharma companies, the
world's 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
496 MSEK in 2007. Biotage is listed on the Stockholm stock exchange. Website:
www.biotage.com


Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking. These may be
identified by the use of forward looking words or phrases such as "believe,""expect,""intend," and "should," among others. These forward-looking statements
are based on Biotage's current expectations. The Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995 provides a "safe harbor" for such forward-looking statements.
In order to comply with the terms of the safe harbor, Biotage notes that a
variety of factors could cause actual results and experience to differ
materially from the anticipated results or other expectations expressed in such
forward-looking statements. Such uncertainties and risks include, but are not
limited to, risks associated with management of growth and international
operations (including the effects of currency fluctuations), variability of
operating results, the commercial development of the microwave synthesis and
flash purification in the drug discovery market, DNA sequencing and genomics
market, nucleic acid-based molecular diagnostics market, and genetic vaccination
and gene therapy markets, competition, rapid or unexpected changes in
technologies, fluctuations in demand for Biotage's products (including seasonal
fluctuations), difficulties in successfully adapting the Company's products to
integrated solutions and producing such products, and the Company's ability to
identify and develop new products and to differentiate its products from
competitors.