QIAGEN And ActiveSight Sign Co-Marketing Agreement Targeting Protein Crystallography

VENLO, The Netherlands and SAN DIEGO, California, February 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- QIAGEN N.V. , the world's leading provider of preanalytical sample preparation products enabling genetic and protein analysis, and ActiveSight, the quality protein crystallography service provider, announced today that they have entered into a co-marketing agreement related to protein crystallography for drug discovery. The agreement seeks to ease access to protein crystallization reagents and crystallographic services, thereby expanding the opportunities for organizations in need of important structural biology information. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Protein crystallography is the most frequently used process to determine the three-dimensional structure of proteins for structure based drug design, functional analysis and structural genomics. By elucidating the structure of proteins, scientists can discover new drugs that more effectively target disease. Prior to crystallographic analysis, proteins require high quality sample preparation procedures. QIAGEN is a leading provider of an extensive portfolio of standardized and easy to use protein crystallization consumables.

QIAGEN's extensive line of standardized reagents and kits now enable researchers to use a seamless solution of QIAGEN products from genes all the way through to protein crystals. Crystal analysis and structure resolution can then be performed at ActiveSight, using their advanced equipment for structural determination. ActiveSight also offers protein crystallization set-up using QIAGEN reagents.

"We are very pleased to work with ActiveSight, given their reputation for excellence and leadership in the protein crystallography service field," said Jean-Pascal Viola, QIAGEN'S Director of Protein Crystallization. "The bundling of QIAGEN's sample preparation standards with ActiveSight's advanced service offerings creates an alternative for researchers in need of structural analysis, X-ray analysis and 3D structure resolution of their protein crystals. The endorsement of Dr. McRee validates our leadership position in the field of protein crystallization."

"We are delighted to offer QIAGEN's high-quality reagents in our CrystalScan crystallization screening service," stated Duncan McRee, Ph.D., President of ActiveSight. "QIAGEN is leading the field in innovation for crystallization reagents to make structure determination more accessible and successful."

In addition to leading ActiveSight, Dr. McRee is an internationally renowned crystallographer, with over 90 entries in the Protein Data Bank and over 70 publications.

About QIAGEN:

QIAGEN N.V., a Netherlands holding company with subsidiaries in Germany, the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, France, Italy, Australia, Norway, Austria, Canada, China, Malaysia, Sweden, and the Netherlands believes it is the world's leading provider of innovative enabling technologies and products for molecular diagnostics solutions and preanalytical sample preparation for the separation, purification and handling of nucleic acids and proteins. QIAGEN has developed a comprehensive portfolio of more than 320 proprietary, consumable products for nucleic acid and protein separation, purification and handling, nucleic acid amplification, as well as automated instrumentation, synthetic nucleic acid products and related services. QIAGEN's products are sold in more than 42 countries throughout the world to academic research markets and to leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. In addition, QIAGEN is positioning its products for sale into developing commercial markets, including applied testing markets, clinical research, nucleic acid-based molecular diagnostics, and genetic vaccination and gene therapy. QIAGEN employs more than 1,500 people worldwide. Further information on QIAGEN can be found at www.qiagen.com.

About ActiveSight:

ActiveSight (TM), a division of Rigaku Americas Corporation, features a full range of protein crystallography services, as well as a Portfolio of "ready to go" drug targets for co-crystallography. The Portfolio includes the oncology targets Focal adhesion kinase (FAK), Hsp90 and Aurora-A kinase; nuclear hormone receptor targets PPAR-delta and FXR, implicated in obesity; PDE-4 for asthma and inflammation; the hypertension target renin; the type-II diabetes target FBPase; and the anti-infective target bacterial gyrase.

ActiveSight also offers full gene-to-structure custom research services for client's targets, including X-ray data collection and fragment-based screening, featuring the Rigaku FR-E and ACTOR automation systems. Further information on ActiveSight can be found at www.active-sight.com.

ActiveSight (TM) is a trademark of Rigaku Americas Corporation.

Certain of the statements contained in this news release may be considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. To the extent that any of the statements contained herein relating to QIAGEN's products, markets, strategy or operating results are forward-looking, such statements are based on current expectations that involve a number of uncertainties and risks. Such uncertainties and risks include, but are not limited to, risks associated with management of growth and international operations (including the effects of currency fluctuations and risks of dependency on logistics), variability of operating results, the commercial development of the applied testing markets, clinical research markets and proteomics markets, nucleic acid-based molecular diagnostics market, and genetic vaccination and gene therapy markets, competition, rapid or unexpected changes in technologies, fluctuations in demand for QIAGEN's, products (including fluctuations due to the level and timing of customers' funding, budgets, and other factors), difficulties in successfully adapting QIAGEN's products to integrated solutions and producing such products, the ability of QIAGEN to identify and develop new products and to differentiate its products from competitors' products, market acceptance of QIAGEN's new products, the integration of acquisitions of technologies and businesses, and the timing of product introductions by our commercial partners. For further information, refer to the discussions in reports that QIAGEN has filed with, or furnished to, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

CONTACT: Contacts: Peer M. Schatz, Chief Executive Officer, QIAGEN N.V.,e-mail: peer.schatz@QIAGEN.com. Dr. Solveigh Mahler, Director InvestorRelations, QIAGEN N.V. +49-2103-29-11710, e-mail:solveigh.maehler@QIAGEN.com. Ron Swanson, Chief Scientific Officer,ActiveSight, +1-(858)-455-6870 ext. 102, e-mail: rswanson@active-sight.com