Axis-Shield PLC Release: Chairman’s AGM And Interim Management Statement

Dundee, Scotland, 14 May 2009. Axis-Shield plc (LSE:ASD, OSE:ASD), the international in vitro diagnostics company, today issues an Interim Management Statement for the 18 week period ended 30 April 2009, as required by the UK Listing Authority’s Disclosure and Transparency Rules. The statement will be delivered at the Company’s Annual General Meeting (“AGM”) today by Nigel Keen, Chairman of Axis-Shield:

“Revenues for the 18 weeks to the end of April 2009 have been in line with the Company’s expectations. In our Point-of-Care Division, sales of Afinion™ and NycoCard™ continue to progress well and our installed base of Afinion™ instruments is increasing in line with forecasts. Afinion™’s ease-of-use, reliability and speed of results continue to impress clinicians, and its superiority over the current market-leading method for measuring the HbA1c blood levels of diabetes patients was confirmed by the US Baystate Medical Centre study published in the journal Point of Care in March. The new Oslo operations facility is running well and producing record output of both Afinion™ cartridges and NycoCard™ kits.

“In the Laboratory Division homocysteine revenues have been increasing, helped by patent conflict resolution and the Architect kit launch, and we are looking to increase market penetration by promotion of the different Axis-Shield technologies available to measure this important analyte, particularly our clinical chemistry option. In January we announced the global launch (excluding the USA) of ARCHITECT® anti-CCP for the early diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis, our second test for Abbott’s primary high-throughput analyser. We also announced a contract for a clinical chemistry version of the same marker with Beckman-Coulter. In the UK, the role of anti-CCP in disease management was recognised in a new guide to rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis and treatment published by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE). The success of anti-CCP as a marker has stimulated unlicensed competition which we are continuing to address in both US and German courts. We continue to seek to identify and secure novel markers to develop through our Laboratory Division, and as marker clinical utility is developed we will explore whether a point-of-care application is merited via the Afinion™ analyser.

“Our Distribution Division remains a significant revenue generator for Axis-Shield and the recent acquisition of our German PoC distribution operation will further add to sales in 2009 and beyond.

“Our balance sheet remains strong and there have been no significant changes in the financial position of the Company since the recent publication of the 2008 Report and Accounts.

“As announced in our Annual Report, Erik Hornnaess has decided to retire as a non-executive director of Axis-Shield at the end of this AGM. He was formerly on the Board of Shield Diagnostics plc and Chairman of Axis Biochemicals ASA and played a significant role in the merger of the two organisations in 1999. We would like to thank Erik for the great influence he has had on the evolution of Axis-Shield and wish him well in his retirement.

“I am confident that Axis-Shield will continue to deliver on its commercial objectives, despite the uncertain economic climate, and I look forward to reporting further progress at the time of the interim results.”

Axis-Shield

Axis-Shield (www.axis-shield.com) is an international in vitro diagnostics company, headquartered in Dundee with R&D and manufacturing bases in Dundee and Oslo. The Group specialises in the supply of instruments and tests for the rapidly growing physician’s office testing market and the development, manufacture and marketing of innovative proprietary diagnostics kits in areas of clinical need, including cardiovascular and neurological diseases, rheumatoid arthritis, and diabetes.

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