NEWARK, Del., Dec. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Strategic Diagnostics Inc. -- a leading provider of antibody products and analytical test kits for food safety, water quality and environmental markets, today announced that the RapidChek(TM) Listeria testing system has been adopted by a major international manufacturer of ready-to-eat meats and prepared foods, whose brands are well-recognized and trusted in the food industry. SDI believes this customer will represent approximately $150,000 in incremental annual revenue for this specific application and shipments are expected to begin in the current month of December.
This new customer, a multimillion dollar company employing more than 15,000 worldwide, places a strong emphasis on its food safety program. As part of the adoption process, an extensive evaluation was performed by the company's research team, which included the evaluation of two DNA-based test methods in addition to the SDI assay. The RapidChek(TM) Listeria was the method of choice based on technical performance, ease-of-use, cost and fastest time to results, all the components that are viewed as important elements in a test method.
Matt Knight, President and CEO commented, "Continual adoption of our Listeria assay in large food companies validates the superior performance of this customer-defined product in the marketplace. The product continues to deliver the desired benefits and required results that are specified by the customer. The ease-of-use and accuracy of this test system is ideally suited for this application. We believe that our RapidChek(TM) Salmonella launch in the first half of 2006 will receive a similar response among our current and prospective client base."
The SDI RapidChek(TM) Listeria method was developed as an effective, one-step enrichment system for the selective growth, isolation and detection of Listeria species in food and environmental samples. It received AOAC approval in June 2004 and since then has been adopted by a growing number of large ready-to-eat processing plants. Unlike other methods on the market, there is only one media to prepare and one transfer step involved in the process, offering significant savings in terms of labor and cost. In addition to ease-of-use, the RapidChek(TM) test is accurate, sensitive, and detects all Listeria species.
About Strategic Diagnostics Inc.
Strategic Diagnostics Inc. develops, manufactures and markets biotechnology-based detection solutions to a diverse customer base, across multiple industrial and human health markets. By applying its core competency of creating custom antibodies to assay development, the Company produces unique, sophisticated diagnostic testing and reagent systems that are responsive to customer diagnostic and information needs. Customers benefit with quantifiable "return on investment" by reducing time, labor, and/or material costs. All this is accomplished while increasing accuracy, reliability and actionability of essential test results. The Company is focused on sustaining this competitive advantage by leveraging its expertise in immunology, proteomics, bio-luminescence and other bio-reactive technologies to continue its successful customer-focused research and development efforts. Recent innovations in high throughput production of antibodies from genetic antigens will complement the Company's established leadership in commercial and custom antibody production for the Research, Human/Animal Diagnostics, and Pharmaceutical industries, and position the Company for broader participation in the pharmacogenomics market.
This news release contains forward-looking statements reflecting SDI's current expectations. When used in this press release, the words "anticipate", "could", "enable", "estimate", "intend", "expect", "believe", "potential", "will", "should", "project" "plan" and similar expressions as they relate to SDI are intended to identify said forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that all forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual results to differ from those anticipated by SDI at this time. Such risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, changes in demand for products, delays in product development, delays in market acceptance of new products, retention of customers and employees, adequate supply of raw materials, the successful integration and consolidation of the Maine production facilities, inability to obtain or delays in obtaining fourth party, including AOAC, or required government approvals, the ability to meet increased market demand, competition, protection of intellectual property, non-infringement of intellectual property, seasonality, and other factors more fully described in SDI's public filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Company Contact: Investor Contact: Anthony J. Simonetta Hayden Communications Chief Financial Officer Brett Maas (brett@haydenir.com) (302) 456-6789 Matt Hayden (matt@haydenir.com) www.sdix.com (843) 272-4653
Strategic Diagnostics Inc.CONTACT: Anthony J. Simonetta, Chief Financial Officer of StrategicDiagnostics Inc., +1-302-456-6789; or Investors, Brett Maas,brett@haydenir.com, or Matt Hayden, matt@haydenir.com, both of HaydenCommunications, +1-843-272-4653, for Strategic Diagnostics Inc.
Web site: http://www.sdix.com/
