GAITHERSBURG, Md. and TUCSON, Ariz., Dec. 19, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- QIAGEN Gaithersburg Inc. (formerly Digene Corporation), a wholly owned subsidiary of QIAGEN N.V. (Nasdaq:QGEN) (Frankfurt:QIA) ("QIAGEN" or the "Company"), and Ventana Medical Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:VMSI) today announced that on December 15, 2007 they agreed to a settlement of the litigation of expired patents 4,849,331 and 4,849,332 pending between them on mutually agreeable terms. As part of that settlement an undisclosed cash consideration was paid by Ventana to QIAGEN and QIAGEN acknowledges that pursuant to an Asset Purchase Agreement dated September 23, 2002, Ventana has lawfully succeeded to the rights of Beckman Coulter under the Cross-License Agreement originally entered into between Institut Pasteur and Life Technologies, Inc., effective April 1, 1990, and under the Agreement between Institut Pasteur and Beckman Instruments (now Beckman Coulter), effective June 7, 1991.
