DANBURY, Conn. and BRUSSELS, Belgium, Dec. 3, 2008 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ATMI, Inc. (Nasdaq:ATMI) and Artelis SA announced today that ATMI has purchased from Artelis assets related to Nucleo(tm) - the next generation single-use bioreactor, and Jet-Drive(tm) - a compact single-use mixing system. The sale price was not disclosed.
The sale stems from the relationship originally formed by ATMI LifeSciences and Artelis in 2006 with a view to developing and marketing innovative single-use mixers and bioreactors. ATMI will integrate the acquired assets into its global operations and will remain a shareholder of Artelis.
"Acquiring these assets enables us to strengthen our leading position as a global provider of comprehensive disposable systems in the field of storage, mixing, and bioreactors for the biopharmaceutical industry," commented Mario Philips, ATMI LifeSciences General Manager. "ATMI and Artelis have a long-standing relationship, and Artelis remains our primary technical partner to support our customers in the implementation of the Nucleo(tm) bioreactor system."
"Our relationship with ATMI LifeSciences presented a unique opportunity for Artelis to leverage its know-how in process development in the field of cell culture. Through the collaboration, Artelis has gained awareness of the quality of its technical team to implement disposable technologies for the biotech industry," commented Hugues Bultot, Artelis co-founder and Chief Executive Officer.
"This agreement brings value to our business model and gives us financial resources to pursue our process intensification strategy - to focus on the development of iCELLis(tm) -- our scalable high-cell--density disposable technology platform," Bultot added.
About Artelis SA
Artelis is an international and innovative biotech company founded in 2005. Capitalized by ATMI, Artelis is the privileged partner of world-leading pharmaceutical groups. Artelis is concerned with the process intensification needs in the biotech industry through the implementation of high-cell-density technologies and related process development. Artelis is developing iCELLis(tm) - a scalable, high-cell-density and disposable cell culture technology platform for the production of antibodies, recombinant proteins, viruses, and cells. iCELLis(tm) enables process intensification by reducing bioreactor scales and simplifying operations. For more information, please visit www.artelis.be.
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About ATMI and ATMI LifeSciences
ATMI, Inc. provides innovative materials and high-purity materials handling and process optimization solutions designed to increase production yields, accelerate new product introductions, reduce capital expenditures, and mitigate risks for our global semiconductor, flat panel, and specialized process customers. ATMI LifeSciences is a leader in single-use mixing, storage, and bioreactor technology, fluoropolymer-based products, and custom engineered, flexible packaging solutions. Our fundamental knowledge of polymers, specially selected resins, as well as cleanroom manufacturing experience coalesces to ensure optimum performance in critical disposable process operations. ATMI LifeSciences has manufacturing facilities in Hoegaarden, Belgium; Minnesota and Kentucky, USA. For more information, please visit www.atmi.com and www.atmi-lifesciences.com.
ATMI is a trademark or registered trademark of Advanced Technology Materials Inc. in the United States, other countries, or both.
The ATMI, Inc. logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=5254
Statements contained herein that relate to ATMI's future performance, including, without limitation, statements with respect to ATMI's anticipated results of operations or level of business for 2008 or any other future period, are forward-looking statements within the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are based on current expectations only and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, including, but not limited to, changes in semiconductor industry growth (including, without limitation, wafer starts) or ATMI's markets; competition, problems, or delays developing, commercializing and delivering new products; problems or delays in integrating acquired operations and businesses; uncertainty in the credit and financial markets; and other factors described in ATMI's Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007, and other subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Such risks and uncertainties may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in our forward-looking statements. ATMI undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.