• Agreement building upon established OEM partnership between both companies
• Concept development and feasibility testing already successfully completed
• Tecan signed a ten-year supply agreement with a purchase commitment by the diagnostic company
• Upon successful completion of development, based on Tecan's expectations sales potential is estimated to be more than CHF 80 millions over the first five years

The Tecan Group (SIX Swiss Exchange: TECN) today announced a major OEM agreement with a global diagnostics company for the development and supply of a dedicated diagnostics instrument. Under the global agreement, Tecan will develop and supply a fully automated instrument and a corresponding plastic consumable. The agreement is building on an established partnership between both companies.

The development agreement follows a concept development and feasibility testing phase that was already successfully completed. During the development phase Tecan will pre-finance and capitalize the development costs of the next generation instrument. The first half of the development costs will be repaid by the diagnostic company upon launch of the instrument and the remaining half one year after launch. In addition to the development agreement both companies signed a ten-year supply agreement with a purchase commitment by the diagnostic company. Upon successful completion of development, based on Tecan's expectations the sales potential is estimated to be more than CHF 80 millions over the first five years. Tecan expects to ship first instruments for the commercial launch to the diagnostics company in late 2012.

Thomas Bachmann, CEO of Tecan, said: "We are proud to have signed this major OEM agreement with one of our existing OEM partners to develop the next generation dedicated instrument. For Tecan this OEM agreement significantly broadens our market opportunity as the instrument will be marketed globally and will penetrate new markets."  

About Tecan
Tecan (www.tecan.com) is a leading global provider of laboratory instruments and solutions in biopharmaceuticals, forensics, and clinical diagnostics. The company specializes in the development, production and distribution of instruments and automated workflow solutions for laboratories in the life sciences sector. Its clients include pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, university research departments, forensic and diagnostic laboratories. As an original equipment manufacturer, Tecan is also a leader in developing and manufacturing OEM instruments and components that are then distributed by partner companies. Founded in Switzerland in 1980, the company has manufacturing, research and development sites in both Europe and North America and maintains a sales and service network in 52 countries. In 2009, Tecan generated sales of CHF 392 million (USD 361.2 million; EUR 259.6 million). Registered shares of Tecan Group are traded on the SIX Swiss Exchange (TK: TECN/Reuters: TECZn.S/ ISIN CH0012100191).