CINCINNATI — Meridian Bioscience, Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio (NASDAQ: VIVO) announced that it has made a minority investment in Oasis Diagnostics® Corporation (“Oasis”), with the right to acquire Oasis in the future. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Oasis designs, develops, manufactures and sells pre-analytic tools for the collection, preservation, and transportation of saliva/oral fluids. Oasis’ focus is to provide high-quality, innovative diagnostic solutions based on non-invasive saliva-based technologies. Technologies developed by Oasis serve various segments of the in vitro diagnostics market, including molecular diagnostics, nucleic acid testing, point-of-care testing, and laboratory-based testing. Founded in 2002 by Dr. Paul Slowey, Oasis has developed a portfolio of proprietary and patented devices having multiple applications related to infectious disease, public health, drugs of abuse, and general wellness. Its VerOFy® product is a point-of-care platform that provides multiple disease diagnostics or quantitative biomarker detection in 20 minutes or less from saliva specimens. Other products include DNA•SAL™ for DNA collection, RNAPro•SAL™ and Pure•SAL™ for RNA collection, Pedia•SAL™ for the passive collection of saliva from neonates and premature babies, Micro•SAL™ for collection from small animals and Super• and Versi•SAL® used in laboratory settings as universal saliva collection devices. Oasis’ products have broad applications in the diagnostic, life science and veterinary markets. Non-invasive saliva and oral fluid collection provides for pain-free, cost-effective sample collection for a growing number of applications.

John A. Kraeutler, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, stated, “The transport of human specimens safely and securely has been an important component of Meridian’s product offerings since our founding. Through our Diagnostics and Life Science customer interactions we have recognized the growing importance of oral fluids as a preferred sample for many assays, especially for the measurement of DNA and RNA. This investment in Oasis Diagnostics represents an important step in expanding our capabilities in pre-analytic specimen collection and transport as well as opening potential new diagnostic markets for our simple, rapid diagnostic technologies. We are delighted to be collaborating with Dr. Paul Slowey and his team at Oasis Diagnostics and we anticipate working closely to develop innovative collection and transport systems for this emerging market.”

Dr. Paul D Slowey, CEO of Oasis Diagnostics®, added, “We are excited to be partnering with a highly accomplished company such as Meridian. Their strong reputation in the marketplace is one of producing high-quality life science and diagnostic products with broad applications for improving quality of life for its customers. The ideals for the two companies are identical.”

Dr. Slowey is a pioneer in the field of saliva collection and testing, and has had significant experience in managing and directing businesses. He received his Bachelor of Science in Applied Chemistry from Sheffield City Polytechnic (UK) and his PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne (UK). He is the Co-Founder and Co-Organizer of the North American Saliva Symposium [www.salivasymposium.com], with the second annual event taking place next month in Seattle. The Conference, organized with its co-sponsor, the University of Washington in Seattle, is a forum which will bring together key opinion leaders from industry and academia for a series of lectures and collaborative discussions on saliva and salivary diagnostics. Meridian and Oasis will be represented at this important meeting highlighting the growing applications utilizing saliva as a diagnostic medium.