Venlo, the Netherlands 10/1/08; Uppsala, Sweden 10/1/08—QIAGEN NV has acquired the assets of the Biosystems business and the remaining 17.5% of Corbett Life Science (see IBO 7/15/08) from Biotage AB for approximately $53 million in cash and performance milestone payments of up to $7 million over four years. The Biosystems business develops and sells the PyroMark systems based on Pyrosequencing DNA sequencing technology. For the 12 months ended June 30, the Biosystems business posted revenue of SEK 101.2 million ($14.7 million) and an operating profit of SEK 28.1 million ($4.1 million). “Our ‘sample to result’ solutions now span qualitative/endpoint PCR, multiplex technologies, capillary electrophoresis as well as quantitative and high-resolution sequence-based analysis,” said QIAGEN CEO Peer Schatz. The acquisition is expected to contribute $2.5 million to QIAGEN’s sales for the remainder of the year and $15 million to sales in 2009. It is forecasted to be dilutive by $0.01 to QIAGEN’s fourth-quarter EPS, dilutive by $0.02 to 2009 adjusted EPS and accretive afterwards. QIAGEN stated that Pyrosequencing can quantify single base-pairs at a cost and data volume more amenable to certain research and molecular diagnostic applications than next-generation sequencing platforms. Biotage stated that it plans to develop its Discovery Chemistry division and broaden its application range.