FSH Fisher Scientific

Fisher Biosciences announced today that, through Fisher Scientific, it has entered into an expanded PCR (polymerase chain reaction) licensing agreement with Applied Biosystems, an Applera Corporation business. Under the agreement, Fisher Biosciences will develop new real-time PCR and PCR-related reagents. The agreement gives Fisher access to patents not covered in Applied Biosystems' original licensing program. For example, the expanded program enables ABgene, a unit of Fisher Biosciences and a licensee under the original program since 1994, to offer optimized reagents and kits for a wide range of PCR and real-time PCR instruments. The new agreement also allows ABgene to develop a broad range of new real-time PCR reagent products and technologies through collaboration with other Fisher Biosciences units. "We are excited by the value that real-time PCR brings to our customers in the rapidly growing life science research market," said Ron Lowy, President and Chief Executive Officer of Fisher Biosciences. "With this expanded license, we are well-positioned to respond to our customers' needs. As always, we are committed to developing new products and technologies that serve the changing demands of science." PCR is a key technology in life science research in which a segment of DNA or RNA is copied or "amplified" so that it can be more readily analyzed. Real-time PCR enables the detection of amplified DNA during the process of amplification rather than at the end, providing greater accuracy in applications such as gene expression quantification and genotyping. Although the foundational patents covering the PCR process expired in the United States in March 2005 and elsewhere in March 2006, numerous other patents related to PCR remain in force. These surviving patents cover, for example, enzyme compositions and certain real-time PCR methods and kits. Applied Biosystems will continue to offer licenses to these patents. About Fisher Biosciences Fisher Biosciences, a unit of Fisher Scientific International Inc. (NYSE: FSH), manufactures and supplies a wide range of products and services across the general-chemistry and life-sciences arenas. From fine and high-purity chemicals, clinical diagnostics, proprietary protein-research and cell-culture products, and sterile-liquid-handling systems, to innovative RNA-interference technology and high content screening, Fisher Biosciences serves scientific-research, healthcare, drug-discovery, and general industrial customers around the world. For more information please visit www.fisherbiosci.com. About ABgene ABgene(R), a business unit within the Fisher Biosciences group, produces specialist products for nucleic acid amplification and biostorage. ABgene rapidly responds to the needs of the continually developing markets of drug discovery, genomic and forensic research and biological archiving. ABgene's product lines include PCR and QPCR reagents, molecular biology consumables and instrumentation designed to complement each other for increased productivity. ABgene is headquartered in Surrey, U.K. For more information about ABgene products visit www.abgene.com or call +44 (0) 1372 723456.