Meridian Bioscience Restructures and Expands Life Sciences

Meridian Bioscience, Inc., (Cincinnati, Ohio, USA) announced that it has completed its restructuring and expansion of its former life science subsidiaries into one wholly-owned subsidiary, Meridian Life Science, Inc. (MLS).

Meridian Bioscience entered the life science arena primarily through its acquisitions of Biodesign International (a subsidiary of Gull Laboratories) in 1998, Viral Antigens, Inc. (VAI) in fiscal year 2000, and OEM Concepts, Inc. in January 2005. The former life science subsidiaries have now been combined and restructured as Meridian Life Science, Inc. and contain four life science brands. The restructuring was designed to combine the complementary strengths of each business, expand the global sales and marketing of all life science businesses as one company, and streamline the customer interactions.

Richard L. Eberly, President, Meridian Life Science, Inc., commented, "We are excited about the combination and expansion of Meridian Life Science, Inc. into a strategic business unit focused on becoming the world's leading supplier of biological materials used in applications to advance the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Meridian Life Science will remain committed to utilizing its excellence in science to provide innovative solutions as a trusted partner in the manufacture and distribution of critical biologics. We will also continue to focus on building the broadest portfolio of biologics for life science industry and research.”

Meridian Life Science will continue its research, development, and manufacturing operations in Memphis, Tennessee; Saco, Maine; and Boca Raton, Florida. The MLS product brands have been structured to expand and align the sales and marketing capabilities to the medical diagnostic, biopharmaceutic, and life science research markets.

Biodesign International represents a product line of essential antigens, antibodies, and assay development reagents that are manufactured and distributed to diagnostic and pharmaceutical manufacturers as well as academic and life science researchers.

Viral Antigens represents a product line of viral proteins and critical assay reagents utilized by the major diagnostic manufacturers in the industry. Many of the viral proteins are custom-developed antigens that are used in infectious disease diagnostic assays such as rubella, hepatitis A, measles, mumps, Epstein-Barr virus, cytomegalovirus, toxoplasmosis, varicella zoster virus, HSV, and RSV. Several new viral antigens are in development for commercialization in 2007.

OEM Concepts serves as a large-volume producer of monoclonal antibodies that are critical components of commercial diagnostic products used in the diagnosis of infectious diseases and in the monitoring of human protein levels in metabolic disorders, pregnancy, and cardiac disease. OEM adds custom ascites manufacturing, in-vitro monoclonal production, and purification processing capabilities to Meridian's customer base of major diagnostic companies.

Meridian Biologics serves as an enabling technology provider for process development and pharmaceutical-grade manufacturing of biologicals used in new drugs and vaccines. Meridian's protein production facility is designed to support the manufacturing requirements for pre-clinical, Phase I, and Phase II clinical trials. Meridian is currently negotiating with several biopharmaceutical companies for the production of recombinant proteins for use in therapeutics and vaccines.


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