MARCY L’ETOILE, France, Dec. 8 — bioMerieux, a world leader in the field of in vitro diagnostics has acquired PML Microbiologicals Inc., a leading provider of culture media and microbiological products in North America for both clinical and industrial applications. This privately held American in vitro diagnostics company has manufacturing and marketing teams based in Portland, Oregon and Toronto, Canada.

Founded in 1969, PML has 205 employees with 2007 sales of $24 million. The company has an extensive range of products for use in the clinical and pharmaceutical industries, holding proprietary technologies for innovative culture media. PML specializes in reagents, including prepared culture media (PPM) for sterility testing and environmental monitoring, as well as control organisms, which are complementary to bioMerieux’s offering.

The acquisition will enable bioMerieux to become a leading provider in the U.S. of microbiology testing solutions for pharmaceutical companies. In addition, bioMerieux will enter the North American clinical PPM market, becoming the number one PPM provider for clinical applications in Canada.

“This new acquisition, our sixth in two years, reinforces the North American market position of bioMerieux’s core business, microbiology,” declared Stephane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of bioMerieux. “In the current challenging economic context, we are pleased to add another reagent-only business to our portfolio that will boost bioMerieux’s recurring sales.”

“The PML acquisition brings to our customers in the pharmaceutical industry an enhanced range of high performance, innovative solutions for the control of their manufacturing environment and products,” added Alexandre Merieux, Corporate Vice President, Industrial Microbiology.

PML’s sites in Portland and Toronto will join bioMerieux’s worldwide network of culture media production centers with its main site in Craponne (France) and regional facilities in Lombard, Illinois (United States), Madrid (Spain), Basingstoke (England), Brisbane (Australia) and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil).

bioMerieux purchased 100% of PML Microbiologicals’ shares from the privately held Pelican Life Sciences Group, based in San Diego, California (U.S.A.) for the sum of $29.6 million.