Bayer Takes an Equity Stake of 10 Million Euro in Innogenetics
TARRYTOWN, N.Y., and GHENT, Belgium, March 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Bayer
Corporation and Innogenetics N.V. jointly announced today that they have
concluded a series of agreements in the field of in vitro nucleic acid based
viral diagnostics. Under the terms of the agreements, Bayer acquires the
exclusive worldwide rights for the sale and marketing of Innogenetics' LiPA
HIV and LiPA HCV products and their future generations. Innogenetics will be
responsible for the research, development and manufacturing of the existing
products and their future generations over the term of the agreements.
The agreements signed today include an asset purchase as well as research,
manufacturing, sales and other agreements between Bayer and Innogenetics.
Included is a payment of 10.4 million Euro, a future milestone payment and R&D
funding for the next five years. Under the terms of the agreements, Bayer
will pay to Innogenetics a percentage of the end-user price for the supply of
the products. In addition, Bayer will make an equity investment of 10 million
Euro in Innogenetics' share capital.
"I am extremely pleased with Bayer Diagnostics as a partner for
Innogenetics LiPA HIV and LiPA HCV products," said Philippe Archinard, CEO of
Innogenetics. "The agreements give us access to one of the premier worldwide
sales networks in the diagnostics industry. At the same time this allows us
to focus on our own sales and marketing network to develop the market for our
other innovative theranostic products."
The products covered by the agreements include a market leader for HCV
genotyping and an extensive line of HIV drug resistance assays. "These high
quality products from Innogenetics are a perfect complement to our developing
portfolio of nucleic acid based tests," said Peter Knueppel, Head of Nucleic
Acid Diagnostics at Bayer Diagnostics. "Bringing the market-validated LiPA
technology into our product pipeline will help us build on our commitment to
deliver products of optimal value to the market utilizing the most appropriate
technologies."
Background Information
With more than 7,300 employees worldwide and 2000 sales of more than
$1.8 billion, Bayer Diagnostics (http://www.bayerdiag.com), based in Tarrytown, New
York, USA, is one of the largest diagnostic businesses in the world. The
organization supports customers in 100 countries through an extensive
portfolio of central laboratory, self-testing, nucleic acid, point of care and
critical care diagnostics systems and services for use in the assessment and
management of health, including the areas of cardiovascular disease, oncology,
virology, women's health and diabetes. Bayer Diagnostics is a part of the
worldwide Bayer Group, a $29 billion international life sciences, polymers and
specialty chemicals group based in Leverkusen, Germany. Bayer Diagnostics'
global headquarters in the United States operates as part of Bayer Corporation
of Pittsburgh, a research-based company with major businesses in health care,
life science and chemicals.
Innogenetics N.V., founded in 1985, is a Belgian-based biotechnology
company engaged in the research, development and marketing of diagnostic
products for human diseases, and in the discovery and development of
therapeutic products and vaccines. Innogenetics targets five disease areas:
infectious diseases, immune, neurodegenerative and genetic disorders, and
tissue repair. Innogenetics goal is to build an innovative, international
biomedical company by providing the healthcare sector with value added
products that improve quality of life and that can contribute to an overall
decrease in healthcare costs. Innogenetics is listed on the Easdaq (INNX),
the pan-European stock market for growth companies.
SOURCE Bayer Diagnostics
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Related links:
http://www.bayerdiag.com
Company News On-Call:
http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/092575.html or fax,
800-758-5804, ext. 092575
CONTACT:
Amy Samaha of Bayer Diagnostics,
914-524-2962, or Wim Ottevaere of Innogenetics, 32-93-29-16-47,
or Johnny Kegels of PR Force, 32-2-713-07-20, for Innogenetics
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