PACKARD BIOSCIENCE EXHIBIT 99.2
Contact: Packard BioScience
Mike Zebarth
Tel: (203) 639-2340
Fax: (203) 235-1347
E-mail: mzebarth@packardbioscience.com
Noonan/Russo Communications, Inc.
Tel: (212) 696-4455
John Capodanno, ext. 246 (investors); j.capodanno@noonanrusso.com
Hala Bashir, ext. 356 (media); h.bashir@noonanrusso.com
Agencourt Bioscience Corporation
Brian McKernan
Tel: (978) 867-2600
E-mail: brianmc@agencourt.com
Packard BioScience Company Announces Strategic Marketing Alliance
and Equity Stake in Agencourt Bioscience Corporation
MERIDEN, Conn., October 11, 2000 -- Packard BioScience Company (Nasdaq: PBSC), a
worldwide leader in the life science tools industry, announced today that it has
purchased an equity stake of less than 10 percent in Agencourt Bioscience
Corporation, a biotech company focused on providing nucleic acid purification
kits and other assays for the genomics and proteomics marketplaces. In addition,
Packard and Agencourt have entered into a Strategic Marketing Alliance in which
the two companies have agreed to co-market their respective products for nucleic
acid purification.
Agencourt's patented Solid Phase Reversible Immobilization (SPRI) technology was
developed and utilized at the Whitehead Institute Center for Genome Research to
purify over 6 billion base pairs of DNA for the Human Genome Project. Developed
to generically purify any DNA, the proprietary technology has found widespread
adoption for cDNA sequencing, shotgun sequencing and industrial-scale
purification of PCR products needed for large-scale microarraying and biochip
manufacturing. SPRI technology is unique in that it utilizes magnetic particles
to isolate nucleic acids from other biomolecular contaminants producing longer
read lengths, greater efficiency, and cost savings.
"The Strategic Marketing Alliance with Agencourt provides Packard with a highly
effective and proven chemistry to complement Packard's high and low throughput
purification automation platforms," said Emery G. Olcott, President and CEO of
Packard BioScience Company. "Through the use of our equipment and Agencourt's
chemistry, our respective customers will be capable of running over 4,000
purification nucleic acid preparations, or preps, per hour, a magnitude of ten
times current industry average. We believe that as the genomics and proteomics
marketplaces continue to grow, our customers will demand increasingly more
efficient and effective purification platforms. The alliance with Agencourt
provides Packard with a proven chemistry that will enhance our ability to
respond to the expected increased demand for high-end purification equipment and
procedures. Finally, Packard's strength in the micoarrying field, coupled with
Agencourt's core purification product line and R&D pipeline, will serve as a
solid foundation for the development of high-throughput technologies for chip
based expression and proteomics analysis." Mr. Olcott will serve as a member of
Agencourt's board of directors.
"We are excited to have Packard as a strategic partner and a stockholder in our
company," said Brian McKernan, President and CEO of Agencourt. "Packard's
significant marketing and distribution strength in the Life Sciences market will
provide Agencourt with immediate market presence and customer service
capabilities. We believe that the combination of Agencourt's chemistry and
Packard's automation equipment creates a highly efficient purification platform
because it requires no centrifugation, filtration or caustic solutions. The
absence of these extra steps saves time and money. "
Agencourt Bioscience Corporation is a developer of nucleic acid purification
kits and other assays for the life sciences industries. Agencourt's primary
focus is to develop assays that will be used for the genomics and proteomics
market segments. Two of Agencourt's founders have worked at the Whitehead
Institute Center for Genome Research, and have significant experience in
marrying the chemistries and instrumentation for high-throughput genomics.
Agencourt is located in Beverly, Massachusetts.
Packard BioScience Company is a leading global developer, manufacturer and
marketer of instruments and related consumables and services for use in the life
sciences research and nuclear industries. The Company is primarily focused on
the rapidly growing areas of drug discovery, genomics and biochip analysis and
is continuing to develop integrated platforms based on a wide range of
technologies and instrumentation. Packard's experience in working in more than
60 countries with market leading customers has allowed the Company to establish
a worldwide leadership position in many of its primary product categories, with
well-recognized brand names and a reputation for high quality, reliable
instruments. Recently, Packard has focused on the development of enabling
biochip technologies, and has started to exploit its pioneering biochip
production patents through both direct sales of biochip products as well as
through licensing agreements with other biochip manufacturers.
Certain statements contained herein are "forward-looking" statements which
involve a high degree of risk and uncertainty, including, without limitation,
the statements regarding product performance and market acceptance thereof, and
may be identified by the use of forward-looking words or phrases such as
"expected," "expecting" or "anticipated." Many factors could cause actual
results to differ materially from these statements including, without
limitation, loss of market share from competition, the company's ability to
successfully introduce new products and platforms, market acceptance of new
products and platforms, our ability to protect our intellectual property, not
infringing on the intellectual property rights of others, changes in the markets
we serve and economic issues such as interest rate and foreign exchange
fluctuations. These and other risk factors are discussed in detail in our
filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.